242 



Anther pointless, oblique. Stigma oblong-elliptical, very 

 deeply channelled vertically. 



The chief differences between this species and P. rufa 

 are to be found in the closely-placed bracts on the stem of 

 the former and in the labellum. The labellum in squamata 

 is ovate-oblong, very thick and fleshy and exceedingly glandu- 

 lar ; in rufa it is narrow-oblong, membranous and not 

 markedly glandular. In the former the tip is bifid and does 

 not turn up ; in the latter it is undivided and recurves abruptly 

 upwards. The basal eminence differs entirely in the two 

 species. In squamata it is a low, flattened, broad, somewhat 

 triangular mound of tissue, in the nature of a thickened or 

 hypertrophied basal margin ; in rufa it forms a relatively 

 high ridge in front of the claw and is in the nature of a 

 transverse thickened fold of the base of the lamina. Along 

 the concave "upper-surf ace of the lamina, there is no ridge in 

 squamata; whereas in rufa there is a mesial ridge, well- 

 marked towards the tip of the labellum. The upper angles 

 of the wings, of the column are obtuse in squamata; they are 

 toothed in rufa. 



Pterostylis mitchelli, Lindley. 



This plant was first discovered by Sir T. L. Mitchell on 

 Mount Kennedy on October 21, 1846, during his expedition 

 between Sydney and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Bentham notes 

 that he has examined a specimen from Salt Creek, a South 

 Australian locality, but it has never definitely been placed 

 on our records. Although regarded by Bentham as a variety 

 of P. rufa its affinities are not so much with that species as 

 with P. squamata of which it may possibly be a variety. It 

 grows freely at the Grange and blooms in August, three 

 months earlier than squamata, which was found at the same 

 sea-level and under similar conditions. This very great dif- 

 ference in the time of flowering is strongly suggestive of 

 difference in species. 



Description. — Plant 3 to 5 inches high. Leaves in a 

 green radical rosette. Stem with 2-4 closely-sheathing bracts, 

 and one subtending each flower-pedicel. Flowers five or six 

 in a loose raceme ; greenish with reddish markings. Galea 

 about 6 lines (exclusive of its produced point), the apex pro- 

 duced into a fine recurved point about 4 or 5 lines long. 

 Conjoined sepals with a sinus angle of about 60°, prolonged 

 into fine diverging tails about 7 lines long ; the whole sepal 

 from base to tip measuring an inch or more. Labellum thick 

 and fleshy, glandular, attached by a movable semicircular 

 claw to an anterior process from the base of the column, very 

 irritable, slipper- or coalscuttle-shaped, tip slightly cleft on 



