250 MR. SCOTT Elliot's tropical African orchids. 



The long spreading shoots have the lowest of the scarcely 

 thickened internodes bare, the upper ones covered with the leaf- 

 sheaths or their remains. The distichous leaves, which reach a 

 length of 5h in., are 2 lines broad, tapering slightly beneath the 

 unequal tip. The flowers are borne on very reduced axillary shoots ; 

 only one flower was present in each case, sessile in the axil of a 

 short blunt upper membranous triangular-ovate bract ; a similar 

 lower bract subtended the scar of probably a lower flower. The 

 sepals are somewhat convex upwards, 3 lines long, the dorsal Ij, 

 the lateral 1| lines broad. The petals are 2^ lines by f line. The 

 lip measures 3 lines from the entrance to the long thin spur (which 

 tapers very gradually to the tip, being | line broad at the middle, 

 with the lower half more deeply coloured) to the tip of the acute 

 central lobe ; the broadly linear base becomes gradually wider 

 upwards, and is about 1 line broad in the middle of its length ; the 

 larger narrow lateral lobes are flexuose and curving. The column 

 is scarcely 1^ lines long, the stigma 1 line broad. The ovary is 

 about 2 J lines long. 



Allied to A. bkaiuUdum Lindl. (S. Africa) and A. fimhriatum 

 Rendle (East Tropical Coast range), but distinguished byi ts more 

 slender stem with narrower leaves and very reduced racemes, as well 

 as by the undivided lateral lobes of the lip. 



Angrsecum Whitfieldii, sp. nov. Vaginis caulis extensi a 

 radicibus crassis elongatis perforatis ; racemis tenuibus multifloris ; 

 floribus parvis, sepalis ovatis acutis 3-nerviis, lateralibus cum basi 

 asymmetrica antice productis, petalis lineari-lanceolatis acutis 

 3-nerviis, labello e basi quadrata trifurcato, lobo medio acute 

 triangular! quam laterales vix filiformes pauUo breviore, calcare 

 ovarium cum pedicello brevi valde superaute; pollmarii stipite 

 piano simplici. 



Hab. Sierra Leone, Thos. Whitfield, 1844 (Herb. Mas. Brit.). 



The specimen consists of a portion of stem 6 in. long, bearing 

 roots more than a line in diameter, the longest reaching 1^ ft. in 

 length. The leaf-blades have all dropped from their broad plicate 

 insertion (5 lines long) on the sheaths. The thin dense-Howered 

 axillary racemes are l^-lf in. long, the bracts shortly ovate and 

 amplexicaul. The sepals are If lines long by f line broad, the two 

 lateral being prolonged anteriorly at the base over the slender 

 forwardly-curving spur (3 lines long). The petals are 1^ lines by less 

 than i line broad. The lip, which has no basal auricles, is If lines 

 long to the tip of the median lobe ; the lateral lobes are 1 line long. 

 The column, which bears 2 anterior wings above, is h line long. 

 The ovary, with the short geniculate stalk, is 2 lines. 



Near A. armeiiiaciim Lindl., but distinguished by its smaller 

 flowers, the absence of basal auricles on the proportionately shorter 

 base of the lip, and the marked anteriorly produced base of the 

 lateral sepals. Also near A. tridacti/lites liolfe (in Gard. Chron. 

 ser. 3, vol. iv. p. 84), which, however, has larger flowers, "4 lines 

 in diameter," with a spur " 5 lines long," and the basal part of the 

 hp " oblong, with a pair of small marginal fleshy teeth at the base." 



Angrsecum verrucosum, sp. uov. Planta gracilis, caule basi 



