310 ME. G. BENTHAM ON OECHIDE^l. 



genera nearly allied to it. Like Lselieae, they are all American, 

 they all have a terminal inflorescence, and many of them have, 

 as in Epidendrum, the labellum united with the column at the 

 base ; but the pollinary arrangement is so different that some have 

 been transferred to other groups, even to Vandese. The pollen- 

 masses (4, 6, or 8), are usually ovoid or globular, not at all 

 or scarcely compressed, and distinctly separated in the anther 

 by spurious dissepiments, dividing each cell into two, three, or 

 four cellules or compartments ; they are free, or nearly so, within 

 tbe anther, though often after dehiscence connected by a small 

 quantity of viscum, which sometimes extends into one or two 

 elastic threads, connecting them also with the rostellum. The 

 pollinary appendage so characteristic of Ladiese is entirely want- 

 ing, or only very slight traces of it may be observed in a very few 

 species. The genera I should propose to include are ten : — 1. 

 Lanium, Lindl. (as a section of Epidendrum), two species differing 

 from all the others in the four pollen-masses, not collateral, as in 

 the next seven genera, but two in each cell, superposed and 

 separated by a transverse or somewhat oblique, not longitudinal, 

 dissepiment, this genus closely connecting the subtribe with that 

 of Liparidese. 2. Amblostoma, Scheidw., founded originally on 

 Epidendrum tridactylum, Lindl., and transferred by Scheidweiler to 

 Vandeae on account of the double thread-like elastic viscum which 

 often connects the pollen-masses with the rostellum. It now includes 

 also A. micranthum (Epidendrum, Hook.), and A. densum, ~Reichb. f.; 

 in all these species the four pollen-masses are collateral in as many 

 apparently equal cells in an almost reniform anther. 3. Serapliyta, 

 Fisch. and Mey. (whose character, though repeated in the 3rd 

 supplement to Endlicher's ' Genera,' was overlooked by Lindley), 

 established on the Epidendrum diffusion, Lindl., which only differs 

 from Amblostoma in the form of the labellum and of the anther- 

 case. 4. Diothonea, Lindl., including Gastropodium, Lindl., and 

 Hemiscleria, Lindl., four species with the anther of Amblo- 

 stoma, but differing in habit, inflorescence, and some other 

 characters. 5. Stenoglosswm, H. B. & K., a single species only, 

 very slightly differing from Diothonea. 6. Hormidium, Lindl. (as 

 a section of Epidendrum), about seven species, with the same 

 almost reniform anthers, all dwarf plants with a very peculiar 

 habit. 7. Hexisia, Lindl., including Euothonea, Eeichb. f., three or 

 four species; 8. Scaphyglottis, Pcepp. and Endl. (Cladobium, 

 Lindl.), about eight species ; and 9. Hexadesmia, Brongn., four or 



