[Plate 61.] 



THE HUMBLE PLEIONE. 



(PLEIONE HUMILIS.) 



An Alpine Herbaceous Plant, from Northern India, belonging to the Natural Order of Orchids. 



Specific Character. 



THE HUMBLE PLEIONE. — Pseudobulbs flask-shaped, furrowed. Bracts oblong-lanceolate, petaloid, longer than the 

 ovary, but afterwards shrivelling and drawn back, leaving the peduncle naked. Sepals and petals linear-lanceolate, 

 spreading, flat. Lip hooded, emarginate. fringed at the edge, and with six distant fringed veins, between which as 

 many naked veins are interposed. 



Pleione humilis : D. Don, Prodromus F oroz Nepalensis, p. 37 ; alias Epidendrum lmmile : Smith, Exot. Bot., t. 98 ; alias 

 Cymbidium humile : Smith in Bees' 1 Cyclopcedia ; alias Ccelogyne humilis : Bindley, Collectanea Botanica, p. 37. 



THIS beautiful gem was originally found by Dr. Buchanan Hamilton in Upper Nepal, 

 among moss, on the trunks of trees. Mr. Griffith met with it on the Bootan 

 mountains in similar situations, in dense forests towards Santagong, at the elevation of 

 8,000 feet above the sea ("Itinerary Notes/' p. 158). Since then it has been sent from 

 the Khasijah hills to Messrs. Veitch, by Mr. Thomas Lobb, who found it at a place called 

 " Sanahda," at the height of 7,000 feet. 



It differs from the two species figured at our Plate 53, in the form of its pseudobulbs, 

 in the narrowness of the sepals and petals, and especially in the long fringes that border the 

 lip, and which also occur upon six of the veins on the inside of the lip. The bract, too, is 

 quite different, petaloid and pale violet at first, then shrinking and shrivelling till it leaves 

 the peduncle naked, as in our figure, remaining at the base of the peduncle, like an old- 

 fashioned leather buskin. 



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