204 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
with the bitterness of his disappointment, Fosterman gave it up and returned 
with his companion to the rest of his party. 
The odour was simply the perfume of this vast mass of Orchids. Itisa 
curious fact that, though many Orchids are almost scentless, the handsomest 
ones have a most unbearable smell. When millions of them are collected 
in a small space this stench, as can easily be imagined, becomes simply 
intolerable and is literally fatal when long inhaled. 
Returning to London, Fosterman told this wondrous tale to some ofthe 
rich Orchid collectors, and an expedition was organised to go in search of it. 
Fosterman was ill and could not go. The expedition found the exact spot, 
but they gave up in despair of ever being able to more than feast their eyes 
upon the flowers through their field glasses. And there, somewhere in the 
depths of the vast tropic forest, they remain to this day. 
gegen 
HOMALOPETALUM JAMAICENSE. 
A VERY remarkable new genus of Orchid is figured and described in the 
last number of Hooker's Icones Plantarum (t. 2461), under the name o 
petalum jamai , Rolfe. It was found growing sparingly on the 
trunks of trees in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica, at 4,000 to 5,000 
elevation, by Mr. W. Harris. It isa plant of very dwarf habit, and, except 
in having creeping rhizomes, closely resembles the Brazilian Pinelia 
hypoleta, Lindl. The flowers, however, are very different in structure, the 
six perianth Segments being nearly alike in shape, and the anther and 
pollinia almost as in Tetramicra, next to which it must be placed. 
great peculiarity of the plant is that the staminodes are not united to the 
median petal, forming the side lobes of the lip, but consist of a palt 
falcate-oblong erect auricles or teeth at the base of the column, to which 
they are partially united. Thus the median petal is not modified into # 
lip, as is usually the case in this order, but is like the lateral petals, e 
allusion to which the generic name is given. F 
The Gardeners’ Chronicle, in alluding to this plant (p. 708), remarks 
“whether the staminodes ever enter into the composition of the lip, i . 
stated, isa matter for further enquiry,” which suggests a doubt in the writers 
mind as to whether the side lobes of the lip are petaloid staminodes at ® 
Some details on this point are given at pages 364 to 367 of the last va 
and examples were given of flowers in which the side lobes of the lip 
actually reverted to perfect stamens, thus giving three. perfect stamens 
the top of a straight column. In every such case the side lobes of the lip 
were absent, and the median petal was like the lateral ones in shape; cole 5 
and texture. Had the two additional stamens been present and thee 
‘ 
