AUR. i ray - A. fox. Frode. 1KIG. Sot. 
Dan Sto - WK. : Cnate PO er Pp. 207 
Microtis.] ORCHIDACEAE. 345 
8. MICROTIS R. Br. 
Glabrous terrestrial herbs; root of rounded tubers on fleshy fibres. 
Leaf solitary, long, narrow, terete, opened out near the stem and then 
continuous with the closed sheath. Flowers small, green, numerous, 
densely spicate, usually spreading or reflexed. Upper sepal erect, broad, 
concave, incurved; lateral lanceolate or oblong, spreading or recurved. 
Petals similar to the lateral sepals or smaller. Lip sessile at the base of 
the column, spreading, oblong, obtuse, truncate or 2-lobed, usually with 
calli near the base. Column very short, almost terete, upper part with 
2 auricles or wings. Anther terminal, erect, 2-celled ; pollinia 4, powdery. 
The genus consists of 6 species inhabiting Australia, one of them extending to New 
Zealand. A seventh species has also been described from the Malay Archipelago. The 
genus has the habit and general appearance of Prasophyllum, but differs in the flowers 
not being reversed,-and in the auricles of the column. 
doa.S, J 
1. M. unifolia “Reichenbach f. Beitr. Syst. Pfl. 62—Very variable in 
size, degree of robustness, and number of flowers. Stems stout or slender, 
3-24 in. high. Leaf terete, fistular, exceeding the spike or shorter than 
it. Spike $-6in. long; flowers few or many, close-set or rather distant, 
minute, green, pedicels short; bracts small. Upper sepal broadly ovate, 
acute, deeply concave ; lateral oblong, deflexed. Petals shorter, spreading. 
Lip horizontal or deflexed, oblong, obtuse or 2-lobed; margins much 
crisped ; disc with 2 calli at the base and usually with an irregularly 
shaped tubercle or swelling near the tip. Column very short, stout ; upper 
part with 2 small auricles. Pollinia attached to a very short caudicle.—— 
M. porrifolia &. Br. Prodr. (1810) 320; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 245 ; 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 266; Benth. Fl. Austral. vi (1873) 347; Fategerald 
Austral. Orch: ii (1888) pt. 1; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 673. 
M. Banksii A. Cunn. in Bot. Mag. (1835) sub. t. 3377, and Precur. (1836) 
n. 311; Raoul Chorx (1846) 41. M. longifolia Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. 
xvii (1885) 247. M. papillosa Col. lc. xviii (1886) 269. Epipactis porri- 
folia Swz. in Vet. Acad. Stockh. (1800) 233. Ophrys unifolia Forst. f. 
Prodr. (1786) n. 311. 
-— . 
> —_ 
KERMADEC ISLANDS, NorTH AND SovutH Istanps, Stewart I[sLAND, CHATHAM 
Isnanps: Abundant throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. October-December. \ 0° 
There appear to be differences in the shape and size of the calli on the lip, the shape ~~ | 
of its extremity, and the extent tc which the margin is crisped. The fertilization: has 
- been described by Thomson in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xi (1879) 422. 
9. PRASOPHYLLUM R. Br. ? 8’. S?7. 
Terrestrial glabrous herbs. Root of globose or ovoid tubers. Leaf 
solitary; sheath usually long; lamina terete, long or short, sometimes 
reduced to a short erect point. Flowers small, sessile in a lax or dense 
spike, reversed so that the lip is uppermost, usually abruptly bent at the 
top of the ovary ‘and consequently spreading or reflexed. Upper sepal 
(inferior by the reversion of the flower) lanceolate or oblong, concave, usually 
arched over the column ; lateral (superior) as long or rather longer, lanceolate 
or linear, free or more or less connate. Petals equalling the sepals or shorter, 
lanceolate or linear. Lip superior, sessile or shortly clawed, or sessile on 
the produced foot of the column, usually erect at the base and concave, 
spreading or recurved above, ovate or lanceolate, undivided; margins 
entire or undulate; disc with an adnate plate or longitudinally thickened 
