Platk 191.— BAGMSIA HILLII and BULBOPHYLLUM 

 TUBEKCLLATUM. 



Family BURMANNIACE.E. [Genera BAGNISIA, Becc, and 



ORCHIDACE^.] ]}ULIiOPHYLLUM, Thouars. 



Bagnisia Hillii, Cheesein. in Kew RuUelin (1898), 420; Trans. N.Z. Inst, xli (1909), 140. 



Bulbophyllum tuberculatum, ('<d. in Trans. N.Z. Inst, xvi (1884), 336; (Jheesem. Man. IS. Z. 

 Fl. 664. 



Bagnisia Hillii, originally discovered by Mr. H. Hill in 1903, is probably 

 the most interesting addition made to the New Zealand flora during the last 

 ten years, for it adds another family to the list of those known to occur in 

 the Dominion. It is a small colourless saprophyte, usually found on the 

 mound of decaying leaves and humus which accumulates at the base of the 

 trunk of the kahikatea {Podocarjms dacrydioides). On account of its small 

 size it is easily overlooked, even in the flowering season, the flowers being 

 often concealed by fallen leaves. The creeping rhizome is fr'om 2 in. to 4 in. 

 in length, and is usually more or less branched. Here and there it puts up 

 erect or curved peduncles bearing 3 to 5 minute scale-like leaves or bracts, 

 and terminating in a single rose-pink flower. This is large for the size of 

 the plant, being from ^ in. to f in. in length. Its appearance is decidedly 

 bizarre, the three inner segments of the perianth, which are widely sei:)arated at 

 the middle, being tightly connivent at the tips, thus giving the flower somewhat 

 of the look of a bishop's mitre, or perhaps of a lantern with three elliptical 

 windows or openings. In the bud, or in the newly expanded flower, the three 

 outer segments partly close these openings, but ultimately they s^Dread out- 

 wards and become sharply reflexed. The structure of the androecium is most 

 peculiar, and deserves careful study. There are six stamens, which are 

 abruptly deflexed within the perianth-tube (see fig. 4). The filaments are 

 short, and quite free; but the connectives of the anthers are much enlarged, 

 and, being connivent at their margins, form a broad membranous tube. On 

 account of the curious manner in which the stamens are deflexed, this tube 

 lies parallel to the inside of the perianth-tube, the tips of the connectives 

 pointing to the base of the flower, and the minute anthers opening into the 

 narrow space between the connective-tube and the wall of the perianth-tube. 

 The ovary is inferior, 1-celled, with three free placentas; the style is short 

 and stout; and the stigma is deeply 3-lobed. The fruit is unknown. 



So far Bagnisia Hillii has only been found in dense forests at Opepe, 

 about fifteen miles to the eastward of Lake Taupo. When first discovered 

 by Mr. Hill only a few imperfect specimens were observed, and although he 

 made a second expedition in the same year, during which I accompanied him, 

 we failed to obtain more than one or two damaged flowers. But in January, 

 1907, Mr. Hill, accompanied by Mr. A. Hamilton, paid another visit to the 

 locality, and was fortunate enough to find a considerable number of specimens 

 in full flower, most of which he very kindly forwarded to me, and which have 

 proved of the greatest service in the preparation of this plate. 



Much attention has been paid to the Burmonniacece of late years, the 

 American species in particular having been worked up by Warming, and by 

 Urban in his elaborate " Symbolae Antillanese." From a recent classification 



