view ; 6, ditto, anterior view ; 7, ditto, the upper part, side view, — 

 all the latter magnified about 6 diameters ; 7, one of the poUinia, 

 magnified. 



A slender glabrous herb, scarcely a span high ; stem erect 

 few-leaved ; radical leaves none, cauline about 5, linear acumin- 

 ate, with a broad membranous sheathing base, erect, the lowest 

 about 3 cm. long, the upper gradually smaller ; raceme short, 

 loosely 5-fl., bracts leaf-like lanceolate, as long as the ovaries; 

 sepals lanceolate acuminate 1 -nerved erect-spreading, 1-3 cm. 

 long; petals acute, margins slightly incurved, prominently 

 1-nerved beneath, 1 cm. long ; lip as long as the petals, erect, 

 3-lobed, side segments short oblong obtuse, the intermediate lobe 

 lanceolate much longer, furnished at base on the under surface 

 with a cluster of minute yellow tubercles ; cells of the anther 

 curved, approximate at base only, glands of the pollinia capping 

 the arms of the rostellum ; rostellum horse-shoe-shaped, with 

 erect arms (appendages) ; stigma horse-shoe-shaped, cushion- 

 like ; ovary cylindrical. 



Described from a single living plant. Colour of the flower 

 pale purple, suffused with darker purple on the side-lobes of the 

 lip; anther dark- brown; stem, bracts and leaves yellowish. The 

 discovery of this plant, and the subsequent re-discovery of the 

 very rare P. ai')pressa, Lindley (due to the enthusiastic and 

 successful botanist and collector, Mr. E. Schlechter of Berlin) 

 have thrown light upon the generic characters of this interesting 

 genus, which has hitherto been very imperfectly understood. 

 The genus was established by Lindley in 1835 upon a single 

 almost deflorate specimen collected by Burchell in 1815. Ben- 

 tham {Gen. Plant, iii, pp. 629, 630) admitted the difficulty of 

 understanding its structure from the material available ; but, 

 having had the advantage of seeing and drawing living specimens 

 of both species, I think they should be regarded as congeneric in 

 spite of some curious differences in the column (which exhibits 

 a singular affinity with that of Satijrium rhynchantJmm, milii, 

 Orchids of the Cape Peninsula, t. 25, — a plant in other respects 

 very different). By a remarkable coincidence while Burchell 

 found, as he carefully noted in his MSS. catalogue, only one 

 plant of P. aiypressa, Prof. Bodkin could find only one solitary 

 specimen of this species, and further search in the same and in 

 succeeding seasons has hitherto proved unavailing. Dr. Krauss, 

 however, found P. appressa once again 24 years after Burchell ; 

 and since then for upwards of fifty years, so far as is known, it 

 was not gathered, though others (and I myself) have searched 

 for it in the original locality. Mr. Schlechter, however, has 

 very recently found two specimens on the Langebergen near 

 Zuurbraak in the Swellendam district ; and I hope to publish a 

 drawing of the plant in the next part of this work. 



