CXXVir. ORCHIDEiE. 1571 



34. MICROTIS, R. Br. 



(From Mihos, small, and oiis, an ear.) 



Dorsal sepal erect, broad, incurved, concave ; lateral sepals as long or shorter, 

 lanceolate or oblong, spreading or recurved ; petals usually narrower, incurved or 

 spreading. Labellum sessile, oblong, obtuse truncate emarginate or 2-lobed, 

 usually callous at the base and somewhat thickened along the centre. Column 

 very short, nearly terete, with 2 small wings or auricles behind the stigma. 

 Anther erect, 2-celJed, the connective not produced ; pollen-masses granular, 

 ■without any or with a minute caudicle. Stigma obtuse or with a rostrum 

 shorter than the anther. — Terrestrial glabrous herbs, with small globular 

 underground tubers. Leaf solitary, the lamina elongated and terete, shortly 

 opened out near the stem and continued in a closed sheath down the stem. 

 Flowers small, green or whitish, usually numerous in a terminal spike, and 

 owing to a bend immediately above the ovary the perianth is often horizontal or 

 reflexed. 



The genus extends to New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Indian Archipelago, and S. China. 



Dorsal sepal broad and very concave ; lateral sepals recurved. Labellum 

 entire or emarginate. 



Flowers above 1 line long. Labellum with the tubercle or callus on the 



disk near the end, the margin usually crisped 1. M. porrifolia. 



Flowers scarcely 1 line. Labellum entire, without any callous on the disk 



except at the base 2. il/. parvijlora. 



1. IME. porrifolia (Leek-leaf), Spreng. Syst. iii. 713 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 vi. 347. Usually tall and stout, often above 1ft. high, with a long leaf and a 

 dense spike of small green flowers, but sometimes slender with the flowers distant 

 in a long spike. Pedicels short, subtended by small bracts. Dorsal sepal erect, 

 broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, very concave, about IJ line long ; lateral sepals 

 spreading and recurved, about 1 line long ; petals shorter, erect or spreading. 

 Labellum sessile, as long as the lateral sepal^, oblong, very obtuse retuse or 

 shortly 2-lobed, the margin crisped or crenate, the disk with 2 oblong adnate 

 calli or short longitudinal plates at the base, and above them the centre thickened 

 and terminating in a tubercle or raised callus below the apex. Column very 

 short, the auricles usually less prominent than in M. parviflora. — Lindl. Gen. and 

 Sp. Orch. 395 ; M. Banksii, A. Cunn. in Bot. Mag. under n. 3377 ; M. unifolia, 

 Eeichb. f. Beitr. 62 ; M. vara, R. Br. Prod. 321 ; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 24 ; 

 Eeichb. f. Beitr. 22; M. pulcJiella, Lindl. Gen. and Sp. Orch. 395, Hook. f. Fl. 

 Tasm. ii. 24, t. 118, not of Br.; M. arenaria, Lindl. I.e. 396, Hook. f. I.e.; 

 M.frutetorum, Sehlecht. Linnasa, xx. 568 ; Fitzg. Austr. Orch. ii. Pt. 1. 



Hab.: Burnett Eiver, F. v. Mueller; Moreton Bay, C. Stuart; and many other southern 

 localities to Stanthorpe and the border of N.S.W. 

 The species is also in New Zealand. 



2. IVE. parviflora (flowers small), R. Br. Prod. 321; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 vi. 347. A more slender species than M. porrifolia, the leaf and especially the 

 sheath much narrower, the flowers smaller and less crowded in the majority of 

 specimens although sometimes this character is reversed, as in those described by 

 Brown, both species having varieties or races with crowded and with attenuated 

 inflorescences. Dorsal sepal broad, obtuse, concave, scarcely above 1 line long ; 

 lateral sepals shorter, and petals still smaller. Labellum as long as the lateral 

 sepals, oblong, obtuse, entire, the transverse callus at the base not very 

 prominent, the disk not thickened excepting near the apex where it usually forms 

 a papillose protuberance rather than a callus. Column with distinct auricles 



