456 MR. H. 1ST. BIDLEY ON THE 



The Onchids of Madagascar. 

 By Henet N. KidleY, M.A., F.L.S., Assistant, Botanical 

 Department, British Museum. 



[Kead 15th January, 1885.] 



(Plate XV.) 



TnE 0rchidea3 of Madagascar, as far as they are at present known 

 to me, belong to 30 genera containing nearly 140 species ; but 

 it is to be expected that this number will be largely increased 

 when the botanical riches of the country are more fully explored. 

 This paper must therefore be only considered as a prodromus, 

 giving an account of the species hitherto described or figured, 

 together with those novelties which have come under my personal 

 observation in the great herbaria of the British Museum and 

 Kew. 



It would at present be premature to base any arguments as to 

 the origin of the flora of Madagascar upon the distribution of the 

 genera and species of Orchideae as at present known ; but it will 

 be of interest to examine the list and compare it with that of 

 Africa and Tropical Asia. 



The Epidendrese are represented by G genera, two of which, 

 Oberonia and CirrJwpetalum, are interesting from their absence 

 from Africa, the remainder also being more extensively deve- 

 loped in Tropical Asia than in Africa. Of the Vandese there 

 are 11 genera, four of which, so far as is certainly known, are 

 confined to the Mascarene archipelago ; one, Polystachya, is dis- 

 tributed over both hemispheres ; the remainder are either exclu- 

 sively African, as Lissochilus, or are most abundant in Southern 

 and Tropical Africa, with outlying species in Southern Asia. 

 The genus Acampe, however, is probably more of an Asiatic type 

 than of an African one. The small number of Neottiea? gives 

 somewhat of an African facies to the list. There are only 4 genera : 

 one, GpnnocJiihs, is exclusively Mascarene ; the others consist 

 of the two widely distributed genera Corymbis and Pogonia, and 

 Monochilus, which is chiefly Malayan. The Ophrydea? are very well 

 represented. There are eight genera, of which two are only 

 known from Madagascar, viz. Bicornella and Platycoryne ; one is 

 found also in the other islands of the archipelago, viz. Cynorchis. 

 Of the rest, two occur also in Africa ; and two, Disperis and Saty- 

 rium, while occurring in India, are most abundant in Africa, 



