26 



2. Pterostylis pusilla, n. sp. 

 Plate iii. 



A slender, glabrous plant, 2J to 3 J inches high ; 2 closely 

 sheathing bracts on stem and one subtending each flower. 



Flowers 1 to 4, on relatively long, slender pedicels. Leaves 

 shortly petiolate, oblong-lanceolate, in a green radical rosette. 



Galea from ovary to' extreme point of dorsal sepal J inch 

 or less, with short recurved point and dark green stripes; 

 lateral sepals conjoined, subulate, reflexed, margins involute, 

 about the same length as galea. 



Labellum fleshy, on a wide claw, reddish-green, oblong- 

 ovate, concave on its upper-surface, with thickened posterior 

 margin ; tip straight ; under-surf ace with deep mesial channel 

 running from base to tip between two pyriform swellings, the 

 apices of which are directed forward, but do not reach the tip ; 

 a few long hairs from lateral margins but not from posterior 

 margin, lower mesial channel beset with very stiff transverse 

 hairs, tip and posterior margin shortly ciliated. 



Column incurved, much shorter than galea, membranous 

 wings roughly quadrangular, with rounded or obtuse angles, 

 anterior margins and lower lobe ciliated ; a secondary 

 expansion, ovate-lanceolate in shape, on either side of stigma, 

 extending from the membranous wings to the junction of the 

 middle and lower third of column ; stigma rather narrow, 

 oblong-elliptical . 



The affinities of this Pterostylis are with P. rufa, P. 

 Mitchelli, and P. squamata. 



From all of these it is readily distinguished by the 

 diminutive size of the plant and flowers and by the absence of 

 caudae to the lateral sepals. 



From P. rufa, Br., it further differs in the possession of a 

 green, as opposed to a withered radical rosette of leaves; also 

 in a fleshy, as opposed to a membranous labellum, the tip of 

 which is quite straight in the new species and upturned in the 

 other ; also in the absence of long hairs or setae from the 

 vestigial appendage, represented in this instance by a thick- 

 ened posterior margin ; the column wings have rounded angles 

 and are without points, whereas in P. rufa they are acute, the 

 upper one being produced into a short point. 



From P. Mitchelli, Lindl., it further differs in regard to 

 its labellum, which has turgid pyriform swellings on its under- 

 surfaoe, and has a straight tip as opposed to a depressed tip in 

 the former species ; also in the absence of a point to the upper 

 angle of the column-wings ; the stigmas likewise are quite 

 different, being narrow oblong-elliptical in P. pusilla and semi- 

 elliptical in P. Mitchelli. 



