Tas. 7464, 
DIPODIUM pPatuposum. 
Native of the Malayan Peninsula, 
Nat. Ord. OrcnipEa#.—Tribe VanpDEZx. 
Genus Driropium, Br.; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen, Plant. vol. iii. p. 539.) 
Diropium paludosum; caule stricto robusto erecto, foliis distichis erecto- 
patentibus strictis ensiformibus acutis carinatis, vaginis equitantibus 
costatis, scapo elongato erecto, racemo laxifloro, bracteis parvis ovatis, 
ovario elongato, floribus longiuscule pedicellatis albis (intus pallide) 
purpureo maculatis, sepalis petalisque consimilibus lineari-oblongis ob- 
tusis patulis demum reflexis, labello sepalis #quilongo anguste lan- 
ceolato subcymbiforme acuto basi v. altius bidentato conduplicato intus 
marginibus costaque medio villosis dorso glabro, columna revi crassa 
lateribus rotundatis antice basin versus excavatum pubescente, anthera 
parva terminali, polliniis segregatim ope candicularum glandule magne 
orbiculari affixis, caudiculis pone pollinia calcaratis. 
D. paludosum, Reichb. f. Xen. Orchid. vol. ii. p.15; in Walp. Ana. vol. vi. 
p. 648. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. vi. p. 19. b 
: Gade iophylisis paludosum, Griff. Notul. vol. iii. p. 344; Ic. Pl. Asiat. t. 
Wailesia paludosa, Reichb. f. in Bonpland (1854), p. 93. 
Dipodium is one of a few remarkable genera of Orchids 
in which the species are divisible into two groups of 
absolutely opposite mode of growth, habit, foliage and 
inflorescence, but of similar floral structure. It was 
established by Brown on an Australian leafless plant, with 
fleshy roots, and no other stem but a scaly flowering scape ; 
to which was added by Reichenbach two Malayan plants 
with the habit of that here figured. Hxcept some slight 
difference in the pollinia, and in the length of the column, 
that of the leafless species being much longer than of 
the leafy, I can point out no character beyond that of 
habit to distinguish these two forms generically. Another 
species, D. pictum, Reichb. £., a native of the Malayan 
Peninsula, but first described from Java, has an elongate, 
scandent, epiphytic stem, from a terrestrial root. — It is 
the Leopardanthus scandens of Blume, and, like D. pictum, 
has flowers blotched, in this case with crimson. Should 
the two forms of the genus be dissociated in name, 
Leopardanthus should be taken for the leafy forms, 
having precedence by one year (1848) over Wailesia, | 
Marcu lar, 1896. 
