ORCHIDS OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. 625 



Flower,^ 'appear in May and June. 



LHstribuHoii. — Throughout the Konkau, North Kanara. Western Ghats and 

 hills of the Peninsula ; Himalayas, eastwards from Kumaon to Assam, Burma, 

 Ceylon, 



2. Vanda Roxburghii, Brouw : FL Br. Tnd., VT., p. 62 : T. 



Cooke, FL of Bombay, II, p. 704. 



Stem stout, ultimatelv 2 feet lono-, roiioh with the bases of fallen 

 leaves. Leaves 6 to 8 inches long, recurved, folded, thick, firm, 

 gashed at the tip. Peduncles 6 to 8 inches long, each 6 to 10 flowered ; 

 bracts ^ inch long, ovate acute ; stalk and ovary about 2 inches long. 

 Flowers about 2 inches in diameter ; sepals and petals yellow, 

 margins white, wavy, inner surface tessellated with brown, outer 

 white suffused with brown, obovate petals a little shorter and nar- 

 rower than sei als : lip fleshy, nearly as long as sepals, side lobes 

 falcately lanceolate acute, creamy white, almost as long as column, 

 disk convex, ridged, midlobe fiddle shaped, thick, violet, tip dilate, 

 truncate, two-lobed ; spur conical. 



Floivers appear in June and July. 



Distribution. — This, the common form of the species, is found throughout 

 the plains of India, excepting in the North-West and tracts of scanty rainfall. 

 It chiefly affects the blanches of mango trees on which it often forms dense 

 masses. It seems to be rare in the Bombay Presidency and Dalzell and Gibson 

 do not include in their Flora. Mr. Spooner informs me that it is found in the 

 Gir Hills of Kathiawar and also that it is common on Mohiva (Bassia latifolia) 

 at Jhansi. 



This gentleman discovered a variety in the hills of the Southern Mahratta 

 Country which flowers fiom October to January, and this being sufficiently 

 distinct I name and describe it now as : — 



2a. V. Roxburghii, Brown, var. nov., Spooneri. 



Stems about 8 inches long, lower part invested by the persistent 

 leathery sheaths of fallen leaves. Leaves yellowish-green, falcately 

 oblong, erosely emarginate, so strongly folded that the margins are 

 almost brought together, 4 inches long by 1 inch broad. Injlores- 

 cence about 6 inches long, axis strongly curved below the flowei-s of 

 which there are usually 4 ; bracts short, blunt, amplexicaul ; stalk 

 and ovary 1| inch long. Flowers almost 2 inches in expanse ; sepals 

 and yj^<a/.9subequal, yellowish white behind, slightly keeled, margins 

 only slightly waved, inner surface yellow with brown tessellations and 

 suff"usion ; a white patch at the base of each sepal and petal ; lip 

 altogether white (excepting a yellow blotch at the base), thick, deeply 



