3. Thehjmitra. ORCHIDACEAE. 117 



glabrous herbs, with ovoid tubers. Leaf solitary, linear, channelled ; bracts sometimes 

 leaf-like. Flowers few or numerous, in a loose raceme. 



A small genus of 6 species, one of which occurs in New Caledonia, the others being 

 endemic to Australia. 



Base of labellum glabrous, with several raised longitudinal 



lines, which may be more or less fused C. cupreus 1. 



Base of labellum covered with purple calli C. Robertsonii 2. 



1. C. cupreus (copper -colored bracts and flowers), Rogers. Text-fig. 31. B. Flower- 

 stalk 37-60 cm. high. Leaf linear-lanceolate, about 11-15 cm. long, rather rigid and fleshy- 

 triangular on section, erect, channelled. Stem-bracts 2, copper-colored, elongate, 

 subulate, clasping. Flowers 8-15, prevailing tints yellow and reddish-brown. Sepals 

 nearly equal in length, yellow with reddish-brown stripes or dots ; the dorsal one erect, 

 8-9 mm. long, ovate, concave, acute ; the lateral ones slightly longer and narrower, 

 spreading below the labellum. Petals erect, ovate-lanceolate, shorter and much narrower 

 than the dorsal sepal, yellow with darker stripes. Labellum with fleshy rectangular 

 base and wide triangular lamina, golden-yellow, protruding between and beyond the 

 lateral sepals ; margins fringed with reddish-blue hairs with a metallic lustre ; the basal 

 portion glabrous, with brilliant reddish-blue raised lines with a metallic sheen sometimes 

 more or less fused, but all ending in free divergent hair-like extremities ; other hairs on 

 lamina not dense and rather shorter than in other species of Calochilus ; tip recurved 

 and ending in a short, glabrous, sinuous ribbon. Column short and widely winged, very 

 open at the base with purple gland at each lower angle ; no castellated ridge connecting 

 the glands, but generally reddish-brown markings between them. Anther long, horizontal, 

 with duck-bill point. Stigma transverse, reniform. 



McLaren Vale ; also reported from Victoria. Oct. -Nov. 



2. C. Robertsonii (after J. G. Robertson, a Victorian botanist), Benth. With the habit 

 of C. cupreus, but seldom exceeding 45 cm. in height, and usually with a longer, broader, 

 thinner, and less rigid leaf- than in that species. The flowers also fewer, the perianth - 

 segments longer, relatively narrower and less pointed. Flowers usually 2-9, green and 

 purple. Dorsal sepal green, ovate, acute, concave, erect, about 12| mm. long ; lateral 

 sepals divergent, spreading below or at the sides of the labellum, as long as the dorsal 

 sepal. Petals very much shorter, yellowish -green, with dark vertical stripe, ovate-falcate, 

 erect. Labellum sessile, about 20 mm. long, similar in shape to that of C. cupreus, the 

 lamina covered with crowded purple glands at the extreme base and ending in a short 

 glabrous ribbon, otherwise densely bearded with long purple glistening hairs. Column 

 short and widely winged, a purple gland at each lower angle, these angles connected by a 

 transverse raised purple (often dotted) ridge. Anther almost as long as column, nearly 

 horizontal, bluntly rostrate. Stigma transversely oblong. Rostellum very long and 

 narrow, unconnected with the pollinia. Pollinia 2, each deeply bilobed, crescentic, 

 clubshaped. 



N.P. and other parts of Mount Lofty Range ; Glencoe ; also reported from New South 

 Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia. Oct. -Nov. 



3. THELYMITRA, Forst. 

 (Greek tJfelyniitrZs, wearing a woman's head-dress : referring to the hood of the column.) 

 Segments of the perianth all similar, petaloid, spreading ; the labellum undifferentiated 

 from the others. Column medium height, erect, widely winged. The wings united 

 shortly in front at the base ; produced on each side of the anther into an appendage, 

 sometimes entire or plumed (Plate 6, i., fig. 1 ap.) or decorated with various excrescences ; 

 commonly produced behind and over the anther, so as to form a more or less complete, 

 often bilobed hood (fig. 1, 3, h). Anther 2-celled, erect or incumbent, its connective often 

 produced into an appendage entire or bifid. Pollinia 2, each deeply bilobed or in 2 pairs, 

 attached directly or by means of a short caudicle with the disk of the rostellum or sometimes 

 quite unconnected with it, mealy or granular. Stigma large, borne on a plate usually 

 below the anther or more or less concealing the latter. Viscid disk well developed and 

 situated in a slot or depression in the upper border of the stigma. — Terrestrial glabrous 

 herbs, with 2 rounded or ovoid subterranean tubers. Leaf solitary, generally much 

 elongated and fluted, very rarely wide and ovate-lanceolate or terete. Flowers one or 

 many in a terminal raceme. Albino forms not infrequent. 



A genus of about 42 species, having Australia apparently as a distributing centre, but 

 recorded also from New Zealand, New Caledonia, Timor, Java, and the Philipjjines. 

 Column-wings produced at the sides and behind the anther 

 so as to form a hood ; the lateral lobes bearing hair-tufts 

 (penicillate). 

 Hood with 3 short denticulate lobes between the penicil- 

 late ones. 

 Middle lobe of hood shorter than adjacent divisions, 

 crested on back ; hair-tufts white ; flowers light-blue, 

 spotted T. ixioides 1. 



