115 



nerved, + 20-27 cm. long by 15-35 mm. wide; petiole + 

 5 cm. long. Scapes erect, terminal, slender, exceeding the 

 leaf in height; raceme 6-9 cm. long, loosely-flowered. Bracts 

 oblong-ovate, glumaceous, prominently multi-nerved, con- 

 tracted at the base, generally reflexed, + 8 mm. long. 

 Pedicels equaling in length the ovary. Flowers medium-sized. 



Lateral sepals free, lanceolate, spreading, 3-nerved, + 

 7 mm. long, 1*6 mm. wide; dorsal sepal erect, 3-nerved, rather 

 shorter and narrower than the lateral sepals, about 6'"5 mm. 

 long. Lateral petals spreading, 3-nerved, shorter and nar- 

 rower than the sepals, + 5'75 mm. long, + 1 mm. wide. 



Labellum sessile, hypochilium rectilinear, + 4 mm. long; 

 lateral lobes small, recurved, narrowly triangular; middle 

 lobe ovate-rhomboid, acute at the tip with entire margin; 3 

 raised longitudinal lines on the base of the lamina. 



Colunm rather long and slender, +2*75 mm. long, upper 

 extremity incurved and hooded; stelidia well marked, some- 

 what falcate, acuminate, near the middle of column on either 

 side of stigma, shorter than the hood; rostellum triangular 

 with blunt apex; stigma large, prominent, oval, erect in upper 

 part of the column. 



This Papuan plant finds its place in the subgenus 

 Platycliiiis of B^ndrochilum, Bl. Specifically it comes rather 

 close to D. f/racileCKook. f.), J. J. Smith, and D. Jinearifoliiim, 

 Hook. f. Both of these species have, however, very much 

 smaller flowers and in the latter the stilidium is linear and 

 arises from a restricted area at the very base of the column 

 and the plant is provided with a relatively much shorter and 

 rather blunt leaf. 



Named in honour of the Hon. John Hubert Plunkett 

 Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of Papua. 



The history of this genus is interesting. It was founded 

 by Blume in 1825. In 1843, Nees and Meyen described from 

 an imperfect seeding specimen without flowers, a new genus 

 Acoridtum, which they regarded as non-orchidaceous and 

 placed in the Order Philydraceae. It was transferred almost 

 immediately by Endlicher to the Burmanniaceae, and later 

 on was again removed to the Cyperaceae, in which order it 

 remained for many years with the somewhat doubtful approval 

 of Bentham. In 1884 Bentham split Blume's genus into 

 Dendrochihiui and J^lafi/clini.'^, the former having a lateral 

 and the latter an apical inflorescence (i.e., in regard to their 

 origin from the pseudobulb). In the Genera Plantarum, 

 Platyclinifi appears among the Epidendreae under the sub- 

 tribe Liparieae and Dendrochdum is placed under Dendrobicae. 

 Much more recently flowering specimens of Acoridtum were 



