68
JIaments gkbrous; fruit globose, 10—15 mm. in diam., of a dark sage-green colour
turning to blue.
WESTEEN HIMALAYA : from Chamba to Kumaon at elevations between 2,000 and
8,000 feet; ?SiiciaM and KHASIA: J. D. Hooker, &o. (without flowera or fruit).
This handsome evergreen tree is very abundant in Teln-i-Garhwal and Jauns^r,
often forraiug nearly pure forest on the northern slopes of the hills, and in shady
valleys at elevations between 6,000 and 8,000 feet. The flowers open in May; and
the fruit, which remains for a long time on the troe, ripens in August and September.
This tree is termed "Bhadrao" in Garhwal, whilst M. odorafissima is known by the
name of " Kaul." The latter, which is a rarer tree than M. Dnthiei and without its
gregarious habit, is easily distinguished by its smaller leaves and flowers, by its
slender green peduncles and pedicels, and by the oval-shaped berries.
PLATE 83,—MacUlus Dutliiei King. Portions of a floworiag branch and of a fruiting branch.—
of mlural me. 1, single flower; 2, two perfect stamens and a staminode,—ioiA enlarged.
P L A T E 84.
91. APOSTASIA WALLICHII R. Br. in Wall. Fl. .
Natural or
Rar. i. 75, t. 84 (1830).
A terrestrial, erect, glabrous herb 3 to 6 dm. high, with a short rhizome; the
stem cylindric, nnbranclied, about as thick as a goose-quill, often sending out near its
base a few "wire-Iike aerial roots, enveloped in its lower part by blunt sheaths
of unequal length and in its upper part by the sheaths of the leaves; leaves 8 to 10,
scattered, membranous, spreading and decurved, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, slightly
dilated at the sheathing base, 5- to 7-nerved, entire, 12 to 20 cm. long and 1 to 1-j
cm. broad; racemes several, often branched, from the axils of the upper leaves,
spreading, deflexed, 5- to 10-flowered, subsecund, half as long as the leaves; the pcduncle
short, naked; Jluwers about 2 cm. long (including the ovary), erect, each with a
minute, keeled, lanceolate bract at its base; perianth uniEormly yellow, fragrant,
regular, about 5 to 6 mm. long, its 6 segments uniform, spreading, narrowly
lanceolate, sub-acute, their apices deflexed; perfect anthers two, slightly longer than
the style, closcly adpressed together, erect, oblong, sub-acute, 2-eelled: each attached
by a short subulate filament to the sigmoid fleshy receptacle: their cells unequal at
the base and slightly cordate, dehiscing introrsely and longitudinally; pollen-grains
free, ellipsoidal; siaminoda solitary, elongate, semi-cylindric, slightly thickened towards
the base, tapering somewhat to the sub-acute apex, originating from the same
3le as the perfect stamens, but cohering to the stylo for nearly its whole
length, free only near its apex; style somewhat shorter than the perianth segments,
cylindric, erect, slightly larger than the staminode; stigma discoid, truncate-crenate,
obscurely 3-lobed; ovary inferior, on a short pedicel, narrowly cylindric, obscurely
3-aiigled, 3-cel!ed, the three placentas axile, continuous throughout its whole length,
multiovulate; capsule 2 to 2-5 cm. long, slender, sub-cylindric and slightly tapered
upwards, obscurely 3-ridged, smooth, shining, brown, crowned by the withered penpntli;
seeds very numerous, minute, ellipsoid to obovoid, with a mioute white process at one
6 9
end, the body pale-brown and rugulosc. Wall Cat. 4448 (1832); Blume t-i Ann.
Sc. Nat. ser. 3, ii. 93 (1834); 31iquel Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 748 (1855); Thwaites Enum.
PI. Gcyl. 315 (1861); Rol/e in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxv. 237, t. 48, fig. 22 to 24
(1889); i,x Orchid Review iv. 329 (1896); Eook. JiL Fl. lir. Ind. vi. 175 (1890).
Mesodactylus deflexa Woll. ex PI. ^s. Rar. 1, c. 74 (1830).
Nepal, Sikkim, Khasia Hills, Assam, Ceylon, Malay Peninsula, Penang.
This plant was excluded by Mr. Pantling and myself from the eighth volume
of these Annals {The Orchids of ihe SikMm Himalaya) on the ground that the genus
Apostasia is doubtfully Orchidaceous. The regular periantli, the free, unmodified
anthers, style and stigma, the free pollen, trilocular ovary and hard ellipsoidal seeds
characteristic of tlie genus contrast strongly with the same organs in the conventional
Orchidaceous flower. The balance of authority is, however, undoubtedly in favour of
the view that both Apostasia, and the allied genus Neuwiedia represent aberrant, or
rather very ancient, forms of Orchidece. Accordmg to the latter view the "ancestral"
characters of an orchid are in these two genera little, if at all, masked by the later
adaptations -which we are accustomed to associate with the flowers of that natural
order. A résumé of the arguments in favour of this view will be found in Mr. Allen
Ilolfe's excellent papers in vol. xxv of the Journal of the Linnean Society, and in
vol. iv of the Orehid Revieiv. In the meantime the figure originally prepared for
the volume on the Orchidi of Sikkim is here given, accompanied by a description in
which are used none of the terms peculiar to orchidologists, in the hope that thay may
be of some use to botanists who have opportunities of examining living specimens of
Apostasia.
PLATE 84.—A plant,—O/" natural sise. 1, A flower showing the perianth, anthers, back
oE staminode, oTsrj and floral bract; 2, side view of a flower after removal of the sopala, petals
and one of the anthers; A, the remaining anther, B, stamincde, C, filament; 3, three-fourths view of
bo(:h anthers (A) as they lie closely adpressed in the flower, of the sigmoid reeeptaele, and of
the apex of the ovary; 4, the flower after removal of the anthers (which are shown separately at
the Bide), B, staminodo, C, filaments, D, stigma, E, style,—a// enlaryed.
G. K.
92. HITCHEUIA GLAUCA Wall. Trans. Med, Phys. Soc. Calcutta, vii. 215 (1834)
Natural order Scitamineoj.
An erect herb; rhizome small, emitting slender long fibres bearing ovate-oblong tubers
5—8 cm. long ; stem 9—12 dm. high ; leaves large, oblong-oblanceolate, 2—3, rarely 4, cuspidate
acute, very glaucous, 3—4 d;n. long, 1—1-5 dm. wide ; spike terminal erect, 12—18 cm.
long, 6 cm. wide, cylindric oblong, bracts all floriferous, crowded, orbicular-euneate, 3 - 4 cm.
long, upper third spreading, pale-green less glaucous than the leaves ;/owers whito ; calyx
thin, membranous, 1 cm. long, cylindric, limb 3-toothed slightly expanded, in the axil of a
short oblong obtuse bracteole ; coroiZa-tube very slender, tubular, 10 cm. long, se-'-ments sm-all
oblong, 1-5 cm. long, concave ; staminodes as long as corolla-segments ; lip ovate ""cot clawed
acute, obscurely emarginate ; stamen as long as the corolla-segments, filament short, anther