CALANTHE. 65 



lobe broadly obcordate ; disk with a cluster of prominent tubercles at the 

 base and a few smaller ones along the medium line towards the notch at 

 the end ; spur slender, incurved, as long as the ovary. Column very 

 short. " — Bot anical il Iaf/azi7i e. 



Calanthe natalensis, Rchb. in Bonpl. 1856, p. 3'22. N. E. Brown in Gard. Cbron. 

 XXIV. (18«5), pp. 78, 136. Bot. Mag. t. 6844. C. sylvatica naralt-nsis, Hchb. in 

 Linnsea, XIX. p. 374. C. sylvatica, Hemsley iu Gard. Chron. XIX. (1883), p. 636. 



A handsome species with the habit of the well-known Calanthe 

 veratrifolia, recently introduced to the Royal Gardens at Kew from 

 King WiUiam's Town, in South Africa, near which it grows in " marshy 

 places in woods and forests '^ ; it was, however, known to science many 

 years previously. By some botanists C. natalensis is regarded as a 

 geographical form only of a species widely distributed over a broad 

 region of the eastern hemisphere, stretching in an oblique direction 

 from Cape Colony to Japan, and of which G. sylvatica, a native of 

 Mauritius and Bourbon, is the type. We prefer, however, following Sir 

 J. D. Hooker and Mr. N. E. Brown in accepting it as a distinct species, 

 especially as the typical G. sylvatica is not believed to be in cultivation 

 at the present time. G. natalensis is the only known Calanthe 

 inhabiting South Africa. 



0. pleiochroma. 



Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, plaited, 12 — 18 inches long. Scapes 

 erect, 18 — 24 inches high, with a pale sheathing bract at each joint, 

 and terminating in a loose, many-flowered, pyramidal raceme. Flowers 1| 

 inches in diameter, pale mauve suffused with white ; sepals and petals 

 elliptic-oblong, acuminate ; lip shorter than the other segments, three-lobed, 

 the side lobes oblong, the intermediate lobe broadly obcordate, emarginate 

 with a violet spot in front of the orange-red calli. 

 Calanthe pleiochroma, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. 1871, p. 938. 

 Introduced by us from Japan, and flowered for the first time in our 

 Chelsea nursery in May, 1871. Its nearest affinities are Galanthe 

 versicolor and G. natalensis, and like them it may hereafter be 

 reduced to varietal rank as a geographical form of G. sylvatica. 



0. rosea. 



Pseudo-bulbs sub-conical, elongated, angulate, 4 — 5 inches long, with a 

 transverse depression or neck about mid-way between the base and apex, and 

 sheathed at the base by large acuminate scales. Leaves broadly lanceolate, 

 prominently nerved. Scapes about a foot high, pubescent, 7 — 12 or mure 

 flowered. Flowers about 2 inches across vertically, light rose sufl'used 

 with white, and with a deeper stain on the inner side of the convolute 

 lobes of the lip ; sepals and petals lanceolate, acute, with a depressed 



