115 
PRESCOTIA PLANTAGINIFOLIA. 
Plantain-leaved Prescotia. 
GYNANDllIA MONOGYNIA.— Nat. Ord. ORCHIDEJE. 
Sect. II. Anthera stigmati parallela persistens. Massse pollinis vel farinaceeB vel e cw- 
pusculis angulatis ; apicibus stigmati affixes. — Br. Prodr. 
Gen. Char. — Perianthium rectum (resupinatum auctorum). Lacinice revo- 
lutae, duae superiores basi connatae : Lahellum erectuxn, carnosum, cucul- 
latum, integerrimum, columnam minutissimam amplectens. Anthera bi- 
locularis persistens, stigmati parallela : Pollima 2, didyma, granulosa, 
apice gland ula gynizo retuso affixa Lindl. MSS. 
Prescotia plantaginifolia, Lindl. Hist. Orchid, ined. 
Stem about a foot and a half in height, cylindrical, somewhat furrowed up- 
wards, glabrous. Leaves several, the lower ones largest, 5 or 6 inches in 
length, erecto-patent, broadly oblong or ovato-lanceolate, bluish-green, 
scarcely striated, rather thick, sheathing at the base ; as they ascend the 
stem the leaves become gradually smaller and squamiform, or bractei- 
form, closely appressed. Spike 4-6 or 8 inches long, consisting of very 
many close, small, green, erect, appressed and resupinate flowers, each 
subtended by a lanceolate bractea, about half the length of the germen. 
Rachis stout, green, glabrous, furrowed downward from each side of the 
flowers. 
Corolla with the five segments small, slightly concave, green, of which the 
two at the back of the flower are united at the base, and somewhat gib- 
bous ; the two inner ones nearly equal in length to the outer, but nar- 
rower, pale, and of a more delicate texture. Lip resupinate, erect, re- 
markably cucullate, with a small vertical opening, its texture thick and 
succulent, and of a darker green than the rest of the flower. Germen ob- 
longo-clavate, erect, not in the least twisted, scarcely furrowed. Column 
very short, white. Anther placed at the back of the stigma, and paral- 
lel with it, fixed by its base, moveable, subcordate, yellow, obtuse, 2-cell- 
ed. Stigma subquadrate, forming a sort of lip, which is rather shorter 
than the anther, notched, the notch applied near the top of the cells of 
the anther, and there receiving the gland of the pollen-masses, which, af- 
ter the bursting of the anther, are left upon the inside of the stigma. 
They are composed of four, club-shaped, yellow, granulose bodies, united 
by their bases in pairs to a gland. 
Communicated from the splendid garden of the Horticul- 
tural Society of London, by the liberality of its enlightened 
VOL. n. 
