w o ORCUIDS OF THE SIKKIM-HI MALAYA.
t o the apox. Column very short aud stout. Stigma lai-ge, siib-orbicular. Pollinia OToid,
a t t a c h e d by a sleuder caudiclc to an orbicular gland. Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. VI, 27 ;
Auu. Roy. Bot. Gard., Calcntta, Vol. V, 36, t, 55 ; Vanda undulaia, Lindi, in Journ.
L i n n . Soc. Ill, 42; Reichb. fiì. in Gard. Clu-ou., 1875, I, 202; id. 1878, I, 168.
S i k k i m , at elevations from 5,000 to 7,000 feet; in flower dui-ing April and May^
P a n t l i n g , No. 73. Bhutan, Khasia Hills.
T h e sepals and petals are fleshy in texture aud white ia colour, flushed with
p i n k aud sometimes tipped with green. The lip is yellowish-greea striped with pink.
T h e i>eduncle, the racliis of tlie raceme, and the young shoots ai-e green, spotted with
p u r j ) lish- b rown.
P l a t e 275.—Stauropsii undulaia, Bentb. A plaut ; o/ natural iisi. Fig- 1 a flower, 2 colunm TriÜi
anther i" sí'íií aud stigma, 3 empty auther, under sui'faee, 4 pollinia, front view, 5 Üíg saui9, back
Tiew; all enlarged.
4 6 . Sarcochilus, R. Brown.
E p i p h y t a l . Stem none or very short. Zeaoes narrowly oblong or absent. F'owers
u s u a l l y in pendulous racemes. Sepals and petals sub-equal, free, spreading; the dorsal
sepal concave, the lateral pair bfoader and partly adnata to the foot of the coluuni.
Lip jointed or adnate to tho bug produced foot of the column, without a spar;
t h e side lobes very large, erect; the apical lobe minute, tooth-like; the disc with hairy
r i d g e s aud calli. Column thick, shorter than its foot, wingless, rostelluin short. Anthir
t e r m i n a l , depressed, shortly beaked ia front, sometimes beaiing two lateral setie. FolUnia
f o u r , ill pairs, compvcssed; the caudiole slender, flattened, the glaud small. Species
p r o b a b l y about ten, Indian and Australian.
The gemis Sarcochilus, as reconstituted by Bentham, embraces the Sarmhiliii oE Kobert Brown and
of 50 much else besides that it is difSoiilt to know what its limits are. Sir Joseph Hooksr, in his
r i o r a of Biitish India, adopts the Benthamian genus, but characterises it as " a polymorphous one, no
doubt to be dismembered wheu better known." Aud in the Botauical }iIaga2Lne (sub. t. 7041) he
remarks as follows : —
"6ajwc/ii7«s, as reconstituted in the ' Geiura Planiarum,' coasists of a very difficult grjup oC
t h i r ty or forty Indian, Malayau, Australian, and Paoifio Island orchids differing greotly ia habit, acci
out of which some eight or ten genera" (thirteen are given in the Index Eewensis) "had been
differentiated." • • • "For this enlarged genus Keichenbach filius proposed to adopt tlie name of
Thrixspermum, Loureiro (1790), as being anterior to Banothil-M, Brown (1810), a course which Bentham
did not adopt in the ' Genera Planianm^ on the very sufBoient grounds that the name is \itterly
bad in eonstruotion, and because the description of the latter is so incomplete that it would have been
impossible to recognise the plant intended by it, but for a scrap oontained in Loureiro's Herbarium
preserved in the British Museum. On the other hand, Sarcoe/ii/us lias been recognised by all authors
for three-quarters of a century, and many species have been described under that genorio name."
Of the species described under Siircoclnlus in Hooker's Flora of British India, sis are natives of
Sikkim, viz., (3) S. svaaeolens. H. f. ; (2) S. obtusus, Benth.; (3) S. Mmnii, H. f. ; (4) S. hirtas, Benth.:
. (.5) S. ArMhuitcs, Eeichb. fil. ; and (6) S. ian{/eriis, Eeichb. fil. Of these six, the last (S. imiferas) is
the only one which has the charactei's of the genus as wo believe Robert Brown originally constituted
it, and which occur in the only species which he described, viü. 5. falcalua. These oharactere are the
presence in the lip oi two very laigo side lobes and of a very short anterior lobe, togetlier with
the total absence of a spur. Tiie other five Sikkim speoies attributed to S-trcochilui in'the Flora of
British Inilia we have disposed of as follows :—For S. Buateolem we have revived the genus Ornili,ariim
which lindloy provided for the plant when it first came -under bis notice, tho very peculiar
SARC0CHILÜ8. 2 0 7
lip of this plant excluding it, in oui opioion, from any otJier genus. For S. ob/u(,n and S. 3ia>mi
we have re-established the Liudleyan geuua CamarotU (to which the former origtDiilly belonged under
the name CaimroU$ obtusa). The characters which make the revival of Camarotie necessary are tho
djrsal position of the anther, the shape and direction of the enormously developed rostellum, aud
the furm of the lip. For S. hutns we retain the genus Slceoehilns which Lindley originally founded
for it; and wo have transferred, for reasons givea under our deseriotion of the speciei, to the same
gouua the plaut described iu the Flora of Britisli India as ClcUo$io,m hicuHpidnUm. StereocJiihn has a
spurred lip; the middle lobe is large and the lateral lobes are very small; the anther is terminal
aud the rosteUum at right angles to the column-cliaraaters which exclude it fr .m the SurcodUlu» of
Brown. Finally, wo have, on account of the conspicuous spur, the small size of the side lobes, and
the comparatively large size of the apical lobe-but above all on account of the fact that the lip
i Jointed to the colunia—restored S. Arác/uiUcs to Blume's geous DendrocoHa.
Leafless
Leafy;
pubescent, many-flcwered . , . ,
gkbious, with only two to three flower
S. lunif'rvt.
S. pug-na:u>.
1. Sa e c o c h i l u s LUNIFERU8, Benth. MSS. ex Hook, fil, in Bot. Mag., t. 7044.
Roots numerous, elongated, flattened and gi'ecnish in colour. Stm and leaves absent.
Injloi-escencc pendulous, pubescent, 3 to 15 in. long; the peduncle short and with a few
n i i n u t e distant bracteoles; the raceme many-flowered, lax. Flowers almost sessile, -5
i n . across; hract nembranous, ovate-lanceolate, almost equalHng the sub-sessile pubescent
o v a i y . Sepals unequal, the dorsal ovate, blunt, concave and over-archijig the column;
t h o lateral pai r ovate-rotund, blunt, spreading. Petals broader than the sepals, sub-quadrate,
t r u n c a t e . Lip parallel to the columa and jointed to its long foot, iormine a dce|)
t r i a n g u l a r pouch and having very large erect obliquely oblong blunt glabrous side lobes;
t h o apical lobe reduced to a small knob. Column short, thick, its foot longer than itself
b u t not so flftbhy. Anther dome-shaped, rather depressed, bearing two long deourvod
l a t e r a l setas. FolUnia four, orbicular in outline, unequal, compressed, attached by a
s l e n d e r eylindric caudicle to a small thick gland. Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. VI, 37.
Thrixspermum hniferum, Reichb. fil. in Gard. Chron. 1868, 786.
S i k k i m , iu tropical valleys; in flower during May; Patitling, No. 66. Burma;
F a l c o n e r , Brandis, Ku t z .
T h e Bppals and petals of this are yellow with large brown spots; the lip is also
y e l l ow with broad bands of brown, aud the column has two bands of bro\vn below
t h e stigma. In the structure of its flowers this exactly agrees with Sarcoehihs fakatus,
R . Brown, as figured by Fitzgerald in his Orchids of Australia, part 5. Brown'I
g e n e r i c desmption is % very .brief one, and contains nothing that does not fit this
p l a n t , which without hesitation we refer to Sarcochilm, as Brown defined it.
Pi.ATfi 27<).—Sarcochihis hinifc-rus, Benth. A pUnt in flower and fruit; of natural sise. Fig. 1
a flower, 2 bract-, ovary, column aud lip, tide cicc, 3 the lip, looked at from the bose, the top
having been out o£E, 4 longitudinal seoti.a of column and Hp, 5 oolumn, front m»,-showing the
anther with its setae and the stigma: 6- the under surface of" the anther with the polUnia in »itu,
7 Ihe pollinia, front and lack views; all othrg.'d.
S a r c o c h i l u s PVGM.£us, new species.
Stem 1 in. long, pendulous,
t h e i r apices entire; length 2-5
Leaves two or three, fleshy, linear-oblong, acuminate,
1-, breadth -30 in. Racemes one or two, glabcous, their