THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 127 



shorter than the calyx-lobes, of the same colour ; labellar petal 

 rather longer than the two other, slightly raised on a broad inter- 

 stice, its main portion cuneate-orbicular, much incurved, but at 

 the upper end again bent outward, greenish and upwards purplish 

 or whitish, provided at the commencement of the terminal portion 

 with a conspicuous usually dark-green almost semicircular some- 

 what decurrent callosity, downward membraneously margined ; 

 terminal part of labellar petal much shorter than the other, almost 

 deltoid, membraneous, simply spreading, only slightly crisped, 

 purplish or pale ; appendicles as long as the gynostemmm, con- 

 nected with it only at the base, obliquely narrow-elliptical ; anther 

 minutely pointed, red, turning black ; poUinia two, clavale, sulphur- 

 yellow, their corpuscles in two rows ; fruit obliquely clavate-ovate, 

 nearly thrice longer than broad. 



Between the Yarra and the Dandenong Ranges ; G. French. 



Attains a height of i^ feet. 



In stature and aspect this well-marked species is much like the 

 larger state of P. fuscum^ with which it also agrees in size of 

 flowers ; the approach to P. elatiim is much less. The species is 

 named after the youthful collector, who has filially inhered from 

 one of the principal founders of the Field-Naturalists' Club 

 his ardour for forming, by searches of his own, zoologic and 

 phytologic collections, and instituting observations thereon. 



The species might be mistaken for P. btevilabre ; but an 

 authentic specimen, received from Mr. F. Abbott, the Director of 

 the Botanical Gardens of Hobart, with which Mr. W. Archer's draw- 

 ing in the " Flora Tasmanica " well accords, proves that plant to 

 differ in the unpaired calyx-lobe being narrower, the labellum 

 less curved inward in its lower portion, nearly as long as the 

 other (notwithstanding the specific name), more amply mem- 

 branous and the elevation at the bend much less broad ; more- 

 over, the coloration of the flowers is different, although the upper 

 calyx-lobes are also completely severed. In the " Flora Austra- 

 liensis," VI., 338, Bentham has included more than one species 

 under the name P. brevilabre. The writer has ventured, to reduce 

 in the first " Systematic Census of Australian Plants," Fourth 

 Supplement, page 4, and in the "Second Census," page 190, the 

 genus Corunastylis to Prasophyllum, although he had no specimens, 

 on which observations could be instituted of his own. If the 

 structure, delineated by Mr. Fitzgerald ("Australian Orchids," II., 

 part 3) with accustomed splendour and fidelity, is not of aberrant 

 but of normal growth, the genus-characteristics would rest on the 

 increased number of tubers, on the terminally much appendicu- 

 lated anther with much incurved connective-membrane, on the 

 resemblance of the paired petals to staminodes, the latter seem- 

 ingly being absent, unless they replace undeveloped petals, and 

 on the remarkable elongation of the style ; this structure indeed 



