833 

 THE ORCHIDS OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 



BY 



G. A. Gammie, f.l.s. 



Part VII. (With Plate VII.) 



{Continued f ram page 590 of this Volume.) 



18. RHYNCHOSTYLIS. 



Epiphyte. Stems elongate, clothed with the sheaths of fallen leaves 

 below, leafy upwards. Leaves two-ranked, thick, strap-shaped, 

 curved, lobed or gashed at apex. Flowers showy, in long, dense, 

 pendulous, cylindric racemes ; sepals and petals broad, spreading, 

 contracted at base, lip advate to the base of the column, saccate, 

 mouth of spur pubescent, lateral lobes absent, limb obovate ; column 

 short, stout ; pollinia 2, sub-globose, strap clavate, gland small, oblong. 



1. Rhynchostylis ketusa, Blume. Bijdr. p. 286, t. 49 ; Fl. 

 Br. Ind. VI, p. 32 : Cooke, FL of Bombay, II, p. 698 ; Saccolabium 

 guttatum, Lindl. Dalz. and Gibs., p. 263. 



Strongly attached to the stems and branches of trees by long, thick 

 roots. Stems obliquely projecting from their supports, 3 to 8 or more 

 inches long, according to their age, as thick as the finger, covered below 

 with the short brown sheaths of fallen leaves. Leaves two-ranked, 

 with stem clasping bases, from 6 to 18 inches long and about one inch 

 broad, curved, deeply channelled, unequal bi-lobed or gashed at apex. 

 Racemes usually longer than the leaves; flowers \ tof inch in diameter, 

 pale-pink with darker spots, lip purple, spur flattened, thimble-shaped. 



In the common variety the flowers are \ inch in diameter, the sepals 

 and petals with few purple spots on the upper half, the dorsal sepal is 

 elliptic acute, the lateral broader, obliquely obovate sub-obtuse, the 

 petals are a little narrow than but otherwise similar to the dorsal sepal, 

 the lip is purple, reflexed and emarginate at apex with rounded lobes. 



In variety "2, the leaves are deeply channelled as in the above, the 

 size and shape of the parts of the flowers are similar, but the lip is 

 white with purple blotches and spots. 



In variety 3, the leaves are not so deeply channelled ; the flowers 

 are f inch in diameter ; the sepals and petals are profusely spotted and 

 streaked with purple ; the lip is uniformly rose purple, straight, 

 emarginate at apex with acute lobes. 



