214 



LEAVITT. 



to distinguish between several closely related species which now present them- 

 selves in Java and the Philippines. J. J. Smith (Orch. Java 402) therefore 

 discards the species, provisionally, with the remark: "Was E. aeridostachya 

 anbelangt, welche audi in diese Section gehort, so is die Bieschreibung so 

 oberflachlich, das sie fast alle Arten der Section passt." He distinguishes three 

 Javan species, one of which he surmises is (lie same as the original E. Aeri- 

 dostachya of Lindley. 



The type of the species, if in existence and well preserved, should identify 

 this species even in default of verbal description. Lindley's Loddiges plant is 

 the type. This specimen is in the Lindley herbarium at Kew and is perfectly 

 serviceable. Through the kindness of the curator I was permitted to boil out a 

 flower and to make camera lucida drawings, which are reproduced herewith. 

 ,.., J ,,^ (Fig. 1.) The following notes and measure- 



ments may help to improve the definition of 

 the species: 



Type in the Lindley herbarium at Kew. 

 marked "Batavia. Loddiges," consisting of a 

 single leaf and a not fully developed inflores- 

 cence. A drawing of the lip. evidently from 

 the living Sower, by Lindley. is attached to 

 the sheet. Length of oblanceohite leaf (not 

 entire) 27 cm. width 2.7 em. hi florescence 

 with peduncle 26.5 cm long. Raceme (not 



fully expanded) 12 cm long, up to 2.7 cm in 

 diameter. Peduncle .'{ mm thick. The whole 

 inflorescence short-woolly pubescent, or tomen- 

 tose. Pedicel ami overy, from rhachis to base 

 of mention, !) mm in fully developed flowers. 

 Mentum making a large angle (up to 90°) 

 with ovary, 4 mm long. Dorsal sepal concave, 

 ovate, nearly 4 mm long, 2,."i nun broad 

 when spread out. Lateral sepals 15 nun long 

 measured perpendicularly from column-foot to 

 blunt apex. Petals liffulate, curved, round at 

 apex. ."{.5 mm long, 1.25 mm wide. Lip oblong 

 when spread, scarcely acute, ."> mm long. 2 

 mm wide. Col k m n-foot 5.5 mni long, nearly 

 straight, lanceolate, the upper half concave, 

 with raised edges which meet below and above run up on sides of column. 

 Column scarcely 1 mm high, at right-angles with foot. 



Inasmuch as the appellative Acridostacliya is attributed by Lindley to Reichen- 

 bach, it is of interest to know what this author meant by the designation. In 

 the Gray Herbarium at Cambridge, Massachusetts, there is a Seemann specimen 

 of the number cited in the Flora Yitiensis, and labeled E. Aeridostachya in 

 Reichenbaclfs hand. The flowers are rather old, but the specimen throughout 

 agrees very well witli Lindley's: and thus again we escape ambiguity. 

 There would now seem to he no reason for discarding E. Aeridostachya, 

 The species of this section are often very close together. Indeed, several of 

 the species, though doubtless very distinct in life, are separated by differences of 

 such a nature that the published descriptions suffice to distinguish them, in the 

 dried state, only with difficulty. The description of E. falcata J. J. Smith (Orch. 

 -lava 404) fits almost perfectly the representations which I have of E. Aeri- 

 dostachya, and Smith is very likely right in thinking that E. falcata is the species 



Vie,. 1. — Erin Ai'riftotiacln/a, from 

 Lindley's type. 



