$32 Alfreil J. h'irart : 



Three species that arc closely related are: — 

 1. P. revoluta. li Br. 

 •1. P. reHexa. U.Br. 

 .'5. P. praecox, bindl. 



I. Bentham grouped the first two in one group : 1'. reHexa, vide 

 pp. 359^ Flora Anst. — " In Brown's 1'. revoluta tlie flowers arc 

 considerably larger, and the lahellnni tapers towards the end; l»nt 

 without the long point of P. reHexa. . . . The long and short 

 pointed lahella. and large and smaller Howers, however, pass so 

 mueh into one another, that I have been unahh' to sort the specimens 

 into di.st inet variet ies. " 



II. In his "Australian Orchids," Fitzgerald figures 1'. striata 

 as a new species; hut it is undoubtedly synonymous with P. praerox. 

 Lindl. — ('.;/., compare the plate with that of Disperis alata, Labill. 

 IM. Nov. Uoll.. ii.. ;>!). t. -Jin. It agrees also with specimens in 

 Melh. Herb., collected by Million. Flinders Is., and by Karon 

 ■von Mueller at Wilson's Promontory. 



III. There exists a larger form of P. praecox, which Bentham 

 has placed in P. reflex a— r .. >/. . Hampden. W . A . . W. Clarke. Baron 

 vim Mueller sometimes classed it as P. reflex a ; but often also as P. 

 praecox. One specially Hue example of this type we have figured. 

 It was collected in 1S% at Encounter Bay. South Australia, by Miss 

 Hussey. and is noted in the Herbarium by the Baron as the I rue 

 P. pvaepox. 



IV. As there evidently existed a larger form of P. praecox, and 

 since Bentham had grouped this in P. reHexa. Prof. Hwurt eaine 

 to the conclusion that the true type of P. praecox must essentially 

 be placed in the one group of P. reHexa, and acting upon this classi- 

 fication he renamed P. praecox as P. reHexa. var. intermedia. 



V. But when 0. H. Sargent discovered and named P. constricta 

 it was evidently related to this group of P. praecox. Oddly enough 

 Bentham had evidently taken an orchid, identically similar to Sar- 

 gent's as one of his type, P. reHexa — e,g. } No.. !). Greenoxigh Hat, 



'Ch. Gray. If Bentham's classification be correct, then Sargent's P. 



■constricta could only he a variety. 



VI. After a very exhaustive examination of the specimens in 

 the Melbourne Herbarium, in which the flowers were subjected to a 

 thorough microscopic examination, we have come to the following 

 •conclusions : — 



1. The column and its appendages, and the appendage on the 

 lahellum do not serve as a constant and sure guide in this group of 

 orchids. 



