1 3 2 OrchideCB. \ Thismia. 



2. TKISMZA, Griff. 

 Dwarf, pale herbs, with simple stems ; 1. o, or reduced to 

 scales; fl. few or solitary, terminal; cal.-tube produced far 

 above the ov., campanulate or turbinate, at length deciduous, 

 mouth contracted, annulate, lobes small, ovate, recurved ; pet. 

 3, recurved; anth. 6, subsessile on the calyx-throat, connective 

 broadly dilated, conniving or deflexed, forming a membranous 

 curtain concealing the oval cells; ov. short, broad, i -celled, 

 style short, conic, stigmas 3, stout, erect; fr. turbinate. — Sp. 

 6 ; 2 in F/. B. Ind. 



T. Gardnerlana, Hk.f. m Thw. Ejiujh. 325 (1864). 



T. Brunoniana, Miers in Trans. Linn. Soc. xx. 376 and 381 (non Griff.). 

 C. P. 4009. 



Fl. B. Ind. V. 666. Trans. Linn. Soc. xx. t. 15, f. 20, 21 (T. Briittoniana^ 

 fl. only). 



A pale yellowish, or white, fleshy, saprophyte, 2-4 in. 

 high, with simple thick spreading roots from the base of the 

 erect or flexuous stem ; 1. o, or a few scales ; fl. in a terminal 

 head, with sometimes a few lateral sessile on the stem lower 

 down, \-\ in. long, erect; bracts subulate; cal.-tube companu- 

 late on a very small ovary, shortly 3-lobed, lobes broadl}' 

 ovate, acute, mouth annulate; pet. many times longer than 

 the cal.-lobes, as long as the cal.-tube, consisting of a narrow- 

 spreading linear column, bearing dorsally towards the tip a 

 flexuous subulate process. 



Moist low country, among dead leaves ; very rare. At the roots of 

 trees at Narawella, near Galle (Champion) ; Botala Kanda, Hewesse ; 

 between Eratne and Palabadala. Fl. Sept.-Oct. ; orange-yellow. 



Endemic. 



Champion's specimens are in Herb. Kew, with good drawings. Those 

 in Herb. Perad. (C. P. 4009) have no locality attached, but were probably 

 from Hewesse. The allied T. Brutioniana, (iriff., from Burma, is figured 

 beautifully by Griffith in Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. t. 39. 



The description of the petals of T. Gard)ieriana is from a drawing in 

 Herb. Peraden. In the figure of the flower by Miers in Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. cited above the processes of the petals are represented as simple, 

 terete, filiform, and tortuous. — J. D. H. 



CXXVI.-ORCHIDE^. 



Herb.s, rarely shrubs, of two principal forms, cither terrestrial, 

 often tuberous-rooted with simple stems and terminal infl., or 

 epiphytes, with simple or branched jointed often pscudobulbous 

 stems; 1. alt., quite entire; perianth superior, of 6 pieces, 3 



