180 the victorian naturalist. 



Calochilus Holtzei. 



Rather tall ; basal leaf elongated, stem-leaves usually three, 

 very much shortened or bract-like ; raceme long, with numerous 

 flowers ; pedicels soon somewhat longer than the bracts ; lower 

 calyx-lobes ovate-lanceolar, the upper one usually broader, 

 verging into a deltoid-roundish form ; lateral petals obliquely 

 lanceolar-elliptical, fully as long as the calyx-lobes and with these 

 lightly greenish-brown ; labellar petal doubly as long as the 

 others, rhomboid-ovate, undivided, greenish, above densely beset 

 and also ciliolar-fringed with reddish hair-like papillules, but 

 glabrous at the deltoid apex, bearing near the middle of the base 

 two straight vertical dark-bluish plates with prominent dark 

 strioles between them, but devoid there of glandules and of any 

 protruding cross-line ; gynostemium by about one-third shorter 

 than the calyx-lobes ; anther somewhat contracted upwards ; 

 rostellum semiovate, conspicuous ; fruit ellipsoid. 



Near Port Darwin ; M. Holtze. 



Height, to 3 feet. Tuber nearly i ^ inches long. Basal leaf 

 4-10 inches long, /i-/4 inch broad. Flowers to 20 in the 

 raceme. Pedicels }6-}2 inch long, or at last even longer. 

 Bracts ovate-lanceolar, acuminate, incurved. Calyx-lobes about 

 3^-inch long. Labellum glabrous at the base. Ripe fruit 

 measuring fully ^ inch in length, slightly broader towards the 

 summit. The first representative of the genus from intra-tropical 

 regions. It comes nearest to C. pahidosus, but it is a larger 

 plant, has a raceme from i to i}4 feet long and a deltoid 

 termination of the labellum, irrespective of the longer pedicels 

 and of the petals equalling in length the calyx-lobes, in which 

 respect this new congener differs also from C. campester and 

 C. Robertsonii. Nevertheless, the specific limits of these plants 

 have yet further to be traced by field-studies. C. Robertsonii 

 extends to the Snowy River (John Cameron), the sources of the 

 Werribee (Miss Champ), Maclaren's Vale (Miss Aldersey), Mt. 

 Lofty (Tepper). C. campester occurs also at Port Arthur (Hon. 

 Dr. Dobson), and tlie Freeman River. C. paludosiis advances 

 southward to UUadulla (Baeuerlen). Mr. Holtze's last sending 

 afforded also an opportunity of ascertaining the characteristics of 

 the pollinia in what was lately described as Eulophia Holtzei; thus 

 it becomes now clear, that this plant requires to be transferred to 

 the section Apaturia of Pachystoma, the genus being new for 

 Australia. The base of the gynostemium protrudes distinctly 

 across the summit of the ovulary, and for this reason also the 

 plant is better brought under that genus than under Spathoglottis. 

 The short rather thin and almost horizontal rhizome, further the 

 less spreading calyx-lobes and petals, the form of the labellum, as 

 also the much reflected fruit-pedicels, agree all best with Pachy- 

 stoma — indeed, our plantisin many respects not unlike P. pubescens. 



February, 1892. 



