18. ADENOCHILUS, Hook. f.
Slender terrestrial herbs. Leaf solitary, placed near the middle of the stem, ovate. Peduncle slender, 1-flowered, with 1 or 2 sheathing bracts between the flower and the leaf, the upper of which sometimes bears in its axil the minute rudiment of a second flower. Flower small. Upper sepal erect, incurved, concave or almost galeate; lateral lanceolate, placed under the lip. Petals linear-lanceolate, almost equalling the sepals. Lip shortly clawed on to the base of the column, 3-lobed; lateral lobes large, erect; middle lobe smaller, caudate, reflexed; disc and middle lobe with several rows of small stalked calli. Column slender, curved, winged; wings produced upwards into 2 toothed lobes. Stigma prominent, placed just under the rostellum. Anther terminal, erect, 2-celled; pollinia 4 in each cell, granular.
The genus is limited to two species: one endemic in New Zealand, the other (A. Nortoni, Fitzgerald) in Australia. It is closely allied to both Caladenia and Chiloglottis, differing from the former in the wing of the column extending behind the anther, and from the latter in the solitary leaf and glandular-pubescent perianth.
1. A. gracilis, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 246, t. 56a.—Stem slender, glabrous, 5–10 in. high. Leaf sessile half-way up the stem, ½–1 in. long, ovate or ovate-oblong, acute, membranous, veins reticulated. Flower about ½ in. diam., more or less finely glandular-pubescent. Ovary narrow, cylindrical, ½–¾ in. long. Upper sepal adnate to the back of the column towards the base, acuminate; lateral sepals and petals subsimilar, erect, acuminate. Lip much shorter than the sepals and petals and almost concealed by them; middle lobe much smaller than the lateral, caudate, reflexed; calli numerous, stipitate, yellow. Column broadly winged for its whole length, wings produced upwards behind the anther into two broad toothed lobes.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 265.
North Island: Forests near Lake Waikaremoana, Colenso! South Island: Nelson—Near Foxhill, P. Lawson! Buller Valley, T.F.C.; Mount Owen, Townson! Otago—Mount Maungatua, forests to the west of Lake Te Anau, Petrie! near Lake Hauroto, G. M. Thomson! 500–2500 ft. November–January.
19. TOWNSONIA, n. gen.
A small slender terrestrial herb. Root of creeping fleshy caudicles thickened here and there into small tubers. Radical leaves 1–3 from the caudicles, rarely at the base of the flowering-stem, petiolate, ovate-orbicular. Cauline leaf or empty bract solitary half-way up the stem, sessile, ovate, acute, often much reduced in size. Flowers 1 or 2, small; perianth horizontal or deflexed. Upper sepal much incurved, broad, concave, almost galeate; lateral placed in front of the lip, lanceolate, margins involute. Petals minute, erect. Lip clawed on to the base of the
