98 SOUTH NIGERIAN PLANTS 



MONOCOTYLEDONS. 



By Dr. A. B. Rendle, F.R.S. (excepting- Zingiberaceae 

 hy H. N. EiDLEY, C.M.G., F.E.S.). 



ORCHIDACE^. 



The collection contains seventy species, of which twenty are 

 new. Their affinit}' is almost exclusively AVest Tropical African, 

 and as might be expected a large proportion occur also in the 

 Cameroons, seventeen species being hitherto known only from 

 that area. Among these is the genus Auxojjus recently described 

 by Dr. Schlechter from a single locality. Nineteen species have 

 a wider distribution through the region bordering on the Gulf of 

 Guinea from Sierra Leone to Gaboon, including Prince's Island 

 and the Island of St. Thomas ; Habenaria barrina Ridl. has 

 hitherto been known only from St. Thomas. A smaller number, 

 seven, are more generally West Tropical African, extending 

 southwards to the French Congo or Angola. 



Plaianthera heUeborina Rolfe and Hahenaria procera Lindl. 

 are interesting additions, being previously recorded only from 

 Sierra Leone, the latter known apparentl;;^ o^^ty fi'om Lindley's 

 figure (Bot. Reg. t. 1858), with which the Nigerian specimen 

 agrees. Two of the new species belonging respectively to 

 Bidhojyhyllum and Habenaria have also been sent from Liberia 

 by Mr. R. H. Bunting. 



It is with much regret that I have felt compelled to quote 

 the species of Listrostacliys and Mijstacidiinn under Angraeciim. 

 Dr. Schlechter has recently given repeated instances of cases 

 where the affinity deduced from general characters is at variance 

 with that deduced from the single character of the pollinia and 

 their appendages ; species obviously closely allied must be 

 artificially separated on this criterion. The multiplicity of names 

 borne by many of the species is an indication of the unsatisfactory 

 nature of the system which continues to maintain this distinction. 

 An example is afforded by the species which I originally described 

 as Listrostachys davata ; the pollinia were attached by their 

 caudicles to a single gland, Avhich, however, being easily separable 

 into two parts, Avas on this account referred by Mr. Rolfe to 

 MystacicUum. More recently Dr. Schlechter, in describing a new 

 species, Angraecum affine (in which the two pollen-stalks are 

 attached to a common gland), mentions as its nearest ally the 



