Refugium Botanicum. | | October, 1872. 
TAB. 98. 
Tribe NEoTTIACE. 
Genus Prescortra, Lindl. 
P. pEnstFLorA (Lindl.! Ann. Nat. Hist. vi. 1841, p.52! Gen. d Sp. 455!) 
Radice fasciculata, foliis rosulatis cuneato-oblongis acutis de- 
crescentibus, pedunculo parce vaginato, squamis inferioribus 
vaginatis acutis fissis, superioribus sessilibus ligulatis acutis, 
spica cylindracea elongata, bracteis ovatis acuminatis seu tri- 
angulis trinerviis ovaria equantibus, ovariis crasso-turbinatis, 
sepalo dorsali oblongo acuto, sepalis lateralibus subequalibus 
basi coalitis subsaccatis, tepalis ligulatis acutis, labello saccato 
basi superiori utrinque juxta columnam auriculato, columna 
crassa brevi, auricula extrorsa retusa utrinque juxta antheram. 
—Decaisnea densiflora, Ad. Brogn. in Duperrey, Voyage Coquille, 
192;.¢. 189 | 
This species was collected in St. Catherine, Brazil, in the 
Voyage de la Coquille, and appears to be much rarer than the 
Prescottia micrantha, Lindl., which is very common in herbaria. 
I have one specimen from Pabst! gathered also at St. Catherine. 
Mr. Linden introduced it from St. Catherine, and had it in flower 
in May, 1866. I may add that in the spring of 1872 I was 
favoured by W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., with a very gay and 
interesting monster of the same plant. It was an inflorescence 
simulating Hncomis, all the upper bracts being expanded into 
a beautiful crown or coma of broad and short leaves, closely 
imbricated one on another, like the leaves of some Semperviva. 
Root-fibres fasciculate. _ Leaves rosulate, cuneate-oblong, the 
upper ones smaller, somewhat glaucous. Common jflower-stalk 
glabrous, with some distant sheaths, and a very dense long spike. 
Bracts ovate, acuminate, or triangular, three-nerved, as long as 
the thick turbinate ovaries. Dorsal sepal oblong-acute; lateral 
sepals nearly alike, but connate in a sacciform pouch at their 
base. T'epals ligulate, acute. Lip saccate, with a wide opening 
and a small rounded auricle at its base at each side of the column. 
Column stout, with an extrorse retuse auricle on each side of the 
anther. Pollinia four, powdery, with a small round gland. 'The 
small flowers are whitish, with rosy tips to the sepals. 
