18 cxxxiii. ORCHiDEiE (rolfe). [Microstylis. 



Polynesia, and one in Australia. Besides the two species here enumerated, there is 

 another African one in the Comoro Islands. 



Flowers yellow ; lip cuneate, emarginate . . .1. M. prorepens. 



Flowers purple ; lip obcordate-orbicular . . . . 2. M. stelidostachya. 



1. M, prorepens, Krdnzl. hi Engl. Jahrh. xvii. 48. Rhizome 

 creeping ; flowering stems bearing sheaths, increasing in size upwards, 

 above them 3 -leaved. Leaves ovate-oblong, acute, shortly petioled. 

 Scapes bearing a few narrowly linear, acuminate sheaths ; spikes con- 

 gested, many-flowered. Bracts ovate, very acuminate, almost equalling 

 the ovary. Flowers minute, yellow. Dorsal sepal ligulate, acute ; 

 lateral ones ovate-oblong, subacute, broader than the dorsal. Petals 

 linear from an ovate base, acute, equalling the sepals. Lip cuneatoj 

 emarginate ; base embracing the short column ; disc bearing a pilose 

 cushion. 



Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone j Sugarloaf Mountain, near Freetown; on wefc 

 rocks, Preuss. 



Only known to me from the original description. 



2. M, Stelidostachya, Reichh.f. Otia Bot. Hamb. ii. 118. Stems 

 somewhat tufted, suberect, 2-3J^ in. high, bearing several loose sheaths, 

 diphyllous. Leaves ovate, subacute, IJ— 2J in. long, |-lj in. broad. 

 Scapes 5-8 in. high, many-flowered. Bracts triangular-ovate, acumi- 

 nate, f to 1 lin. long. Dorsal sepal oblong, obtuse, 1 J lin. long ; lateral 

 ones ovate-oblong, obtuse, a little shorter than the dorsal one. Petals 

 linear-lanceolate, acute, IJ lin. long. Lip broadly obcordate-orbicular, 

 1\ lin. long; apical lobes rounded, entire; disc with a pair of small 

 scabrid or minutely tuberculate areas near the base, and outside the 

 three central, scarcely thickened nerves. Column J lin. long. — Ridl. 

 in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxiv. 347. 



Xiower Guinea' Princes Island, Mann, 1151 ! 

 The flowers are purplish in the dried state. 



3. ORESTIA, Ridl. in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxiv. 197. 



Sepals spreading, free, the central ones falcate. Petals spreading, 

 narrower than the sepals. Lip inferior, shorter than the sepals, 

 broadly obovate, pulvinate in the centre. Column elongate, terete, 

 incurved, slightly narrowed upwards ; anther terminal, with very short 

 fiilament, adnate to the rostellum ; cells widely diverging and lateral, 

 dehiscing early ; poUinia 2 in each cell, inappendiculate, elliptical, curved, 

 waxy, yellow. Stigma deeply concave. Rostellum thin, nearly trun- 

 cate, diverging laterally into a broad lobe on either side. — A terres- 

 trial herb, with slender erect stem. Leaves 2, membranous, continuous 

 with the sheath. Flowers small, in a lax raceme. Bracts small and 

 narrow. 



A very remarkable endemic monotype, with the habit and general appearance of 

 some Microstylis or Liparis, but remarkably diflFerent in the structure of the column. 

 Mr. Ridley refers it to Neotfiece, with which, however, I am unable to trace any 

 affinity. At first I suspected it might be an abnormal state of some Liparis, 



