Vol. LYI, No. 12. 
125 
A A PAPUAN ORCHID. 
Dendrobium Coplandii (Bailey) Rupp, comb. nov. A 
By H. M. R. Rupp, Northbridge, N.S.W. 
(Communicated by C. T. White.) 
(With Plate VII.) 
( Received 2 6th October , 1944; accepted for publication, 30 th October T 
1944; issued separately, 29 th June, 1945.) 
This little Papuan orchid was discovered by the late Rev. Copland 
King near Ambasi, and was named in his honour by F. M. Bailey, who 
described it in Queensl. Agric. Journ. xvii (1906), 232, under the name 
Bulbophyllum Coplandii. The structure of the flower suggests that it 
would be better placed in Dendrobium. The length of the petals, the 
large spur, and the trilobate labellum with raised longitudinal lines or 
ridges, are all more characteristic of the latter genus than of Bulbophyl- 
lum. In the National Herbarium of New South Wales there are 
specimens in good condition sent by the Rev. P. C. Shaw from Ambasi 
in June 1906, and it is from these that a study of the plant has been 
made by the present writer. The labellum is very long and narrow, 
and in dried material its details are difficult to distinguish ; but after 
softening out a flower, the small lateral lobes could be unfolded, and the 
longitudinal ridges were revealed — one of them apparently continuing 
along the greater part of the middle lobe. The margins of the lobes 
are irregularly crenulate-crisped. The foot of the column is very long, 
corresponding with the length of the large spur, and the labellum is 
articulate with its apex by a very short claw. 
