May, 1943 
The Queensland Naturalist 
53 
acuminati, glabri. Anthera ovata cum filamento curvo. 
Stigma obscurum. 
A slender plant about 30 cm. high ; stem-bract 2-3 cm. 
below the inflorescence. Spike up to 6 cm. long, with 
about 20-26 flowers, greenish with purple-brown markings 
and veins. Dorsal sepal broad-lanceolate, about 4 mm. long 
with three veins and shortly-ciliate margins. Lateral sepals 
quite free, divergent, broadly linear, 5-6 mm. long. Petals 
similar to the dorsal sepal, but very much smaller, 3-veined 
and with shortly-ciliate margins. Labellum lanceolate- 
acuminate, recurved, longer than the dorsal sepal or at 
least not shorter; callus small, club-shaped, barely reach- 
ing the middle ; margins of labellum rather densely fringed 
with long cilia. Column slender for the genus ; appendages 
unequally bifid, the lobes both acuminate and quite glab- 
rous. Anther ovate, with a long and slightly curved fili- 
form point. Rostellum and stigma obscure. 
Kalbar, South Queensland, “ growing on a broad and 
almost barren rocky ledge on top of Mt. Greville, among 
thick clumps of grass, about 2000 feet above sea level.’' 
E. J. Smith, October, 1942. 
Three specimens, in excellent condition, were sent to 
me by Mr. Smith, but unfortunately, at the time, I was 
seriously ill in hospital and they were pressed. One spike 
was subsequently softened out and examined and later on 
Mr. N. A. Wakefield, of Victoria, serving in the 
A.I.F., and temporarily stationed at Liverpool, 
near Sydney, made an almost perfect dissection 
of the dried flower. The only parts remaining 
obscure were the rostellum and stigma. The 
new species is quite distinct from any hitherto described. 
The petals are unusually small relatively to other segments. 
The callus of the labellum is very small (thus providing the 
specific name) ; it is shaped like an Indian club, the thicker 
portion foremost. The column-appendages perhaps pro- 
vide the most remarkable feature of the flower, for they are 
perfectly glabrous, and this is, I think, unique among the 
numerous species of the section Genoplesium (to which this 
plant belongs) when other parts of the flower are ciliated. 
In this case the labellum is almost as conspicuously ciliate 
as that of P. flmhriatum R. Br. It is not easy to suggest 
the nearest affinities of P. parvicallum ; in* general appear- 
ance it somewhat resembles P. Nublingii Rogers ; but the 
details differ considerably. 
