THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 163 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FLORA OF VICTORIA. 



No. IV. 



By F. M. Reader, F.R.H.S. Communicated by C. Frost, F.L.S. 



(Read before Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 11th January, 1898.) 



Prasophyllum fusco-viride, sp. nov., F. M. Reader. 



An orchid belonging to the section Genoplesium of the genus 

 Prasophyllum. Tuber almost kidney-shaped. Stem from 5 inches 

 to about a foot high ; leafless at the time of flowering, excepting 

 a rudimentary leaf of 3 to 5 lines, situated near the inflorescence. 

 Flowers in a spike or raceme of y 2 to i*4 inches ; very small and 

 hardly opening. Sepals green below, towards the apex blackish 

 brown or brown. Lateral sepals gibbous and united below, 

 lanceolate, about x /% of an inch long. Dorsal sepal fa of an inch 

 long, concave, broadly ovate, acute. Paired petals purplish, 

 linear, shorter than the lateral sepals, f§ of aline long. Labellum 

 dark purplish, articulated at the end of the claw-like basal pro- 

 jection of the column, ovate-oblong, shortly recurved at the pale 

 end. Inner plate with two ridges, occupying the greater part of 

 the lamina, darker than the transparent margins and vanishing 

 towards the apex. Lateral appendages of the column slightly 

 longer than the gynostemium, dark purple, acutely bifid at the 

 end. Rostellum from a rough callous darker base ending in a 

 broad transparent expansion. Anther pale and apiculate, longer 

 than the rostellum. Pollinia sulphur-yellow. Fruit shortly 

 oblong, oblique. 



Flowers April to August. Mallee fringe, Lowan, Dimboola 

 shire ; Miss Felice Reader, 1892 (rare). Mr. C. Walter found 

 this species farther north shortly after the plant was discovered 

 near Dimboola. 



This orchid approaches Fitzgerald's P. viride, but the yellow 

 triangular labellum and green flowers of the latter readily dis- 

 tinguish it from that species. From P. ansatum it differs in the 

 lateral sepals being gibbous at the base, the petals being without 

 a gland, and the labellum being broader and articulate, &c. In 

 P. nigricans the flowers are larger and darker and the lateral 

 sepals are tipped with a gland, &c. P. transversum is devoid of 

 the claw and furnished with a short ovate-acuminate labellum. 

 In P. laminalum the flowers are reddish, the sepals non-gibbous 

 at the base, and the labellum is trapezoid. From P. rufum this 

 new species differs in the colour of the flowers, in the sepals being 

 gibbous at the base, and in the broader labellum. P. densum, 

 inlricatitm, reflexum, eriochilum, Woollsii, and fimbriaticm are all 

 characteristic of the ciliate (more or less) labellum. P. fusco- 

 viride differs from P. densum also in the colour of the flowers, 

 the broader labellum, and in the sepals, petals, and labellum being 



