Directors To that institution it was sent, with many other 
rare plants, from Rio Janeiro, in the autumn of 1822, by Mr 
John Forbes, a most meritorious collector to the Society, 
who afterwards proceeded upon a mission into the interior of 
Africa, where he died as he was proceeding up the Zambezi 
river, in the 25th year of his age, to the irreparable loss of 
science, and to the great grief of his employers. 
This plant struck me as bearing so much similarity in its 
parts of fructification to those of our Malaocis paludosa, that 
I should have been induced to refer it to that genus, if my va- 
lued and able friend Mr Lindley had not expressed himself 
of a different opinion ; and as that gentleman has devoted 
much attention to the Orchideous plants, with a view to pub- 
lishing a History of that tribe, his ideas are entitled to the 
highest respect. 
The following remarks were kindly communicated to me 
by Mr Lindley, along with his generic character of Fres- 
cotia. " Strongly resembhng this plant in habit, especially in 
its minute green flowers, is a singular individual, of which I 
possess specimens from Mexico, and which is still more nearly 
related to Malaxis, as it agrees with that genus in its sec- 
tional character. I call it 
Pedilea, (from 5reS/Ao», a shoe). Perianthum rectum (resupinatum audo- 
rum). Lacinice ovatae ; duae labello suppositae, caeterse (quorum interiores 
lineares) dependentes. Lahellum erectum, ovatum, calciforme, integer- 
rimum, apertum. Columna quadrata, minutissima. Anthera terminalis, 
opercularis, decidua, bilocularis. Pollhda bina, cereacea. Gyniza por- 
rectus, subquadratus, tridentatus, 
" I have given the name Pkescotia after our friend 
John Prescot, Esq. of St Petersburg, who is known no less 
by his acquaintance with the more minute departments of bo- 
tany, than by the facilities which he affords to communication 
between men of science in this country and in Russia." 
Fig. 1. Flower of Prescolia planiaginifolia, with the corolla in the act of 
opening, and exposing a part of the lip. Fig, 2. Flower, fully expand- 
ed. Fig. 3. Back view of a flower. Fig. 4. Back view of the column 
of fructification; a, The anther; b, The stigma. Fig 5. Front view of 
the column; a. The anther; b, The stigma. Fig. 6. Front view of a 
column, with the stigma bent down and the anther forced up, to shew 
its mode of insertion ; the anther still containing the pollen-masses. 
Fig. 7. Front view of a column, of which the stigma bears the pollen- 
masses that have fallen from the cells of the anthers. Fig. 8. Pollen- 
masses. — All more or less magnified. 
• I am desirous of here pubUcly acknowledging the extensive and valuable addition 
to the coUeciion of living plants which our Glasgow Botanic Garden has recently ob- 
laincd from thi« institutioni 
