110 SOUTH NIGERIAN PLANTS 



clavato ovarium aequante ; processuhiis stigmatlcis satis conspicuis 

 anthei'ae canales subaequantibus ; anthera pro flore magna, 

 (PI. 15, figs. 10, 11.) 



Oban ; n. 774. Liberia, Gonyon, Ba&sa ; B. H. Bunting, n. 33 ; 

 " flowers v/hite to greenish." 



The Liberian specimens are taller and stouter than the Nigerian, 

 reaching 4" 6 dm. in height with a thickness of 3 mm., the large 

 radical leaves 15 cm. long (including the lax sheathing base) by 3 cm. 

 broad, the spike 9 cm, long. The Nigerian plants range from 

 17-32 cm. long, with a slender stem 1-1 • 5 mm, thick, and radical 

 leaves 6-10 cm. long and a shorter, laxer-flowered spike. Fertile 

 bracts 12-18 mm, long. Dorsal sejml 5-6 mm, long, 2 mm, broad ; 

 lateral sepals 6-7 "5 mm, long by 2 "75-3 mm, broad. Petals 7 mm, 

 long by '5 mm, broad; lip-segments 6-8 mm. long; spur 12 mm. 

 long ; stigmatic processes 1 mm. long. Anther 2 mm. long. 



Apparently (from the description) allied to H. 2^l'>Jsuriformis 

 Rrauzl. from the Cameroons, but a larger plant with larger flowers. 

 Kriinzlin (in Engl. Jahrb. xliii. 395) places tliis in his section Replicatac, 

 though the petals are described as undivided ; it would seem more 

 fitly placed in the section T?-idactylae. 



Habenaria barrina Ridl. in Bolet. Soc. Brot. v. 202. Oban ; 

 n. 923. A single specimen which is of interest as the species has 

 hitherto been known only from the Island of St. Thomas. By 

 some misunderstanding Rolfe (in Flor. Trop. Afr. viii. 230) 

 cites the species as a synonym of H. tJiomana Reichb. £. The 

 two plants difier remarkably in habit ; H. thomana has a tuft of 

 rather large radical leaves, while the cauline leaves pass rapidh' 

 into bracts ; in H. barrina, on the other hand, there are no radical 

 leaves, and the lower part of the stem bears reduced leaves which 

 pass above into the more or less lanceolate foliage-leaves occupying 

 the upper part of the stem almost to the base of the inflorescence. 

 The flowers also difier in the two species : in H. thomana the two 

 divisions of the petal are strikingly unequal, in H. barrina nearly 

 equal ; in 11. tliomana the lateral lobes of the lip are comparatively 

 broad, falcate and retuse, in H. barrina slender, resembling the 

 median lobe ; the length of stigmatic processes and anther-canals 

 is also very different in the two species, 



ZINGIBERACE^ by Mr. H. N. Ridley. 



Aframomum seeptrum K. Sebum. Oban; nn, 85, 1594, 

 1605. The form sent is apparently one-flowered. The picture 

 .sent with the specimens gives the flowers of a beautiful vi(>let, 

 with white bracts, the lip violet with a paler centre and some 

 yellow streaks in the mouth. The lip is completely convolute 

 round the stamen. The plant figured in the Botanical IVIagazine 

 (t. 5761) is much paler in colour, only tinted violet. The fruit 

 is smooth and scarlet. 



