OECHIDS OF THE SIKEIM.NIUALATA.
Lip concaTO or conYolute, not olawed, spurred or saccate,
rarely pendulous; sepals petals and oolunm vnrious.
Saprophytes or parasites with brown or yellowisli stems,
usually leafless.
Sepals united, poUinia two or four.
Sepals iinited into a ventricoae tube near the
moutb of which the minute petals axe attached;
poUinia two
Sepals and petals imited into a 5-toothed tube; the
dorsal sepal and petals forming an upper and
the lateral sepals a lower lip; poUMa four. .
Sepals fi^ee; poUinia two.
Stem unbraached, roots fibrous, flowers in apical
70. Aphyllorchü.
71. Gakok.
Stem erect or seandent, often branohed, flowers
in terminal or lateral racemes or panicles . . .
Not saprophytic or parasitic, stems and leaves green.
Leaf solitary.
LeaE radical, usually not contemporaneous with the
flowei-s; pollinia two or four 7S. Pogonia.
Leaf homo on the stem close to the flower and
contemporaneous witJi it
Leaves numerous, plicate; poUinia foiu', in paii's
Anther dorsal; leaves numerous, plicate; pollinia four, in pairs . .
73. Corysanthes.
tk. Cephalanthera.
75. £pipaclis.
65. Epipogum, Gmelin.
Terrestrial, leafless, brown-colom-ed kerbs with tuberous or coralloid roots. Siem
erect, slieathecl. Flowers iaw, racemose. Sepak aud petals siib-c(xual, free, narrowly
cibloug, ercct or conuivent. Lip adherent to the base of tJie column, ovate, entire or
3-iobed; the base broad and spmxed; the disc with papillose ridges. Column short,
•with no foot. Stigma broad and prominent. Antlter thickened, conTCx, 2-celled; pollinia
two, broad, bifid, cach attached to a short rudimentaiy caudicle; gland none. Two
species, both Indian.
Spur as long as the lip and ovary; root branched 1. E. aphyllum.
Spur much shorter than the lip and ovary, root a large tuber . S. E. nvians.
1. EpiPOGUii APuvLLUii, Swai-tz Sumn. Veg. Scand., 32.
Glabrous; height of the whole plant not exceeding 8 inches; root branching,
coralloid. Slem stout, sometimes swollen at the base, with two uneqiml sheathing
bracts, one near the base and the other higher up. Raceme 1-5 in. long and about
4-flowered. Fhiucn '75 in. across fi-om apex of dorsal sepal to apex of lip; fioral
Iract membranous, oblong-elliptic, concave, longer than, the slenderly stalked tumid
ovary. Sepals petals narrowly oblong, sub-acute. Lip large, 3-lobed; the side lolrcs
large, rounded, erose at tlie apex; the apical lobe dcflexed, ovate, acute, concave,
its upper sui-face with three short and two long parallel caruncled ridges; the
spur thick, blunt, dorsally flattened, as long as the lip and longer than the ovary.
KPIROGUM. 253
Column stout, curved, the edges of .tho cliuaudrium lobulate. Stigma very large,
occupying two-thirds of the anterior face of the column. Anther globose, with a semicircular
opening in front; pollinia broadly obovoid, compressed, their caudicles very
slender. Boiss. Fl. Orient. V, 93; Reichb. Ic. F!. Gei-m. XIII, t. 468; Hook. fil.
Fl. Br. Ind. VI, 124. U. Gmelinii, Richard Orchid. Europ. Annot. 36; Lindl. Gen.
aud Spec. Orch. 383; in Jomu. Linn. Soc. I, 170: Bot. Mag., t. 4821. Saigrium
Epipogixim., Lmn. Syst. Veg. 076; Jacq. Fl. Austr., t. 84.
Silildm, in the Lachen Valley, at an elevation of 12,000 feet; in flower during
September; Pantling No. 418. Along the Himalayan range to Kashmir. Distríb.—Europe,
N. Asia.
The whole plant is of a faint yellowish colour, except the lip which has led
streaks on its spur aud on tho carunculate ridges of its upper surface.
PLATE ZZL—Epipogum aphyllum, Swarfr. A plant, of natural size. Fig. 1 a fiower, 2 floral bvaot,
stalked ovary, column and lip, in profile, 8 sepals and petals, separated, 4 apes of ovary, column with
anther tVi siiu, jmd stigma, 5 empty anther, 6 pollinia (swollen fi'om immersion in fluid); all enlarged.
2. EPIPOGUM ' NUTANS, Reichb. fil. in Bon plan dia for 1857, p. 36.
Glabrous; whole plant 4 to 10 in. high. Stem short or slender, proceeding from
an oblong or fusiform under-gi-oimd tiiber 2 in. or more in length; sheatlis few, lax,
scattered, broad, obtuse, -5 or -6 in. long. Raceme 2 to 8 in. long, with distant
di'oopiug flowers '5 in. long (excluding tho ovary) ; Jloral Iract membranous, elliptic,
acute, concave, shoiter than the shoi-tly-stalked ovaiy. Sepals and petals linear-oblong,
acute, connivent. Lip elliptic, £i-om a broad base, concave, entire, the apex with a
short blunt apiculus, the upper sm-face with two (? sometimes three) parallel carunculate
ridges; tho shoi-t, slightly bulbous, less than half as long as cither ovaiy or lip.
Column shoi-t, stigma small. AntUr large, sub-quadrate; pollinia two, each with two imequal
lobes and attached below to a thin rather long caudicle. Lindl. in Joum. Linn. Soc. I,
177; Benth. Fl. Austral. VI, 308; Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. VI, 124. E. roseum, Lindl.
1. c. 177. Galcra nutans, Blumo Bijdi-. 41G, t. 3 ; M\is. Bot. Lugd. Bat. II, 187; Fl.
JaviB, OrcMd. 117, t. 52C. and 54E; Lindl. Gen. and Spec. Orch. 500. G. rosea, Blnme
Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat, 188. Podanthera pallida, Wight Ic. t. 1759. Cei-atopsis rosea,
Lindl. Gen. and Spec. Orchid. 384. Limodorum roseum, Don Prod. 30.
Sikkim, in hot valleys, ascending to elevations of 4,000 feet; in flower from April
to Jime; Pantling No. 147. We.stward as far as Nepal, in similar situations. Khasia
Hills; G. Mann. The Dcccan, Ceylon. DLstrib. Java, Australia, West Afiica.
The stem and ovaries arc of a very pale ochraceous yellow, the sheaths being
brown. The flowers in the Sikkim plant are white, the Hp having a few reddish-brown
spots on its upper surface. Occasionally tho flowers arc spotted with pink. In expanded
flowers, tho polUnia rest du-ectly on the stigma, and become absorbed in it as the plant
gets old; only in the bud arc the polliuia found lying within the anther.
PLATE 335.—Epipogum nutans, Reichb. fil. A plant, of natural size. Fig. 1 floral bract and flower,
in profi:ia, 2 stalked ovaiy, column and lip,' in profile, 3 the lip, 4 profile of the column, showing the
anther («), pollinia {p), stigma (s), coluiuu (c), and ovary (o), 5 front of colujnn showing anther {a), two
grooves in which tlio caudicles of the pollinia lie pollinia (jp), stigma (s), 6 pollinia; all enlarged.