﻿THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



[February, i 9 c 4 ! 



Sievkingia Reichenbachiana (I.e., t. 7576), Masdevallia deorsum (I.e., t. 

 7766), Coryanthes Wolfii and C. Mastersiana (Gard. Citron., 1891, ii. p. 483). 

 Lueddemannia triloba (Kew Bull., 1895, p. 283), Scelochilus carinatus 

 (I.e., p. 284), Polycycnis Lehmanni and Lueddemannia Lehmanni. 

 Doubtless there are many others, but enough has been said to show the 

 importance of his work. 



THE GENUS MYSTACIDIU M. 



There is a genus of the Angraecum group whose limits have never been 

 satisfactorily denned. It was founded by Lindley in 1836 (Hook. Comp. 

 Rot. Mag., ii., p. 205) to contain the South African plant then known as 

 Angraecum capense, but which was described by the younger Linnaeus as 

 early as 1781, under the name of Epidendrum capense {Suppl. PL, p. 407). 

 The plant was called Mystacidium filicorne, and the resemblance in habit 

 to Angraecum, as well as the differences in the structure of the pollinaria, 

 were pointed out. Harvey added two additional South African species in 

 1863 {Then. Cap., ii., pp. 47, 48, tt. 173, 174), when he also figured the 

 original species, (t. 175), and Ridley five others from Madagascar in 1885 

 (Joum. Linn. Soc, xxv., pp. 488-490). Reichenbach in 1864 reduced 

 Mystacidium to Aeranthes (Walp. Ann., vi., p. 899, mis-spelt " Aeranthus "), 

 on account of some similarity in the pollinarium, at the same time 

 also adding Aeonia, and the American species now referred to 

 Campylocentron, and partly to Dendrophylax, but, as Bentham 

 afterwards pointed out, the two are very different in numerous 

 particulars. Bentham estimated the species of Mystacidium at about 

 twenty. In revising the Orchids of Tropical Africa I found nineteen 

 species belonging to that area, and there are probably as many more 

 in the Mascarene Islands and South Africa, while, curiously enough, 

 there is one outlying species in Ceylon. The genus is easily separated 

 from Angraecum by having two distinct glands, to which the pollinia are 

 attached, each by its own separate stipes, while in Angraecum there is only a 

 single stipes and gland. The allied genus -Listrostachys is characterized 

 by having two distinct stipes attached to a single gland. These differences 

 are extremely well marked, and are to some extent connected with 

 differences in the habit of the plants, though the position of a few speci< s 

 remains uncertain until the: pollen masses can be examined. Listrostachys 

 and Mystacidium are indeed more easily separated from Angraecum than is 

 the Asiatic genus Saccolabium, for the pollinia are practically identical in 

 the two, and although the latter has a saccate lip, and obtuse sepals and 

 petals, there are species of Angraecum which also have these characters. 



