29 



fruit ripe, so that neither Dr. Falconer nor Kaempfer was able to find 

 the plant in flower. Seeds subsequently procured from the Astore 

 station were distributed to several gardens in this country by Dr. 

 Royle ; some of these have vegetated in the Edinburgh Botanic 

 Garden. 



XV. Account of Gamoplexis, an undescribed Genua of Orchideous 

 Plants. By Hugh Falconer, M.D., F.L.S., &c. 



This genus is named Gamoplexis from the cohesion of the segments 

 of the perianth into a nearly regular six-cleft flower, and affords the 

 only known example in this order " of the union of all the divisions 

 of both whorls of the floral envelope into a monophyllous perianth." 



" Gamoplexis appears to be a true parasite, but after a peculiar 

 fashion, which disguises the habit. The tuberous rhizoma emits no 

 root-fibres by which to fix itself on other plants, but is itself matted 

 over by their slender rootlets, which ramify upon it in every direction 

 slightly imbedded in its surface, to which they adhere with great te- 

 nacity, especially to the scarious margins of the abortive sheath-annuli, 

 giving rise to the appearance of the plant being the subject of a para- 

 sitical growth rather than a parasite itself. This I observed in nume- 

 rous instances ; but other cases occurred to me in which the surface 

 of the tubers presented no appearance of the kind; and Unger, in his 

 memoir on parasitical plants, affirms that no true instance of parasiti- 

 cal growth occurs among the Monocotyledones." 



This is a splendid orchid, three feet high, the stem being perfectly 

 erect, leafless, with a few sheathing scales, and rising from among the 

 decaying leaves at the roots of trees, like our own Neottia Nidus-avis, 

 which was long believed to be parasitical, its true habit being de- 

 scribed by Mr. Leighton in his ' Shropshire Flora,' as quoted in 

 Phytol. i. 25. 



L. 



Occurrence of Linaria supina at Hayle ; and Lastrcea recurva 

 throughout Cornwall. By Thomas Westcombe, Esq. 



When in Cornwall in the 8th month last, I observed Linaria supina 

 growing rather abundantly on the sides of the embankment at Hayle, 

 and if not indigenous in that part of the country, it is certainly well 

 naturalized. 



Vol. hi. f 



