160 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXfi. 



D. Bensoni^. 



This is one of the very few Orchids I have never gathered. I must therefore 

 borroxv my description from the Bot. Magazine. Stems terete, 1 to 3 ft. long, nodes 

 not swollen, internodes concealed by the membranous sheaths (this is the case with 

 many other Orchids when the stems are in a young state). Flowers 2 or 3 on a foot- 

 stalk, 2 inches across, pure white, except the lip, which is golden yellow in the centre, 

 and has two dark purple spots near the base. Lip nearly round, convulute into a 

 sort of neck at the base, a feature common to other Bendrohia. A. handsome species. 

 Arakan hills. 



D. PAEisnn. 



A very handsome plant when large and covered with blossom. Stems pendulous, 

 generally more or less curved (a pretty constant habit) a foot or more long. Flowers 

 wholly red-purple, with a deeper-coloured lip. It smells offensively of rhubarb and 

 magnesia. It is, I believe, too well known to rec[uire further description. 



D. FricHiANrjr. 



This is described in Bof. Jfag. as I), larhntulnm l)y Mr. Eateman, from which, 

 however, I always considered it markedly distinct. My name has been since ac- 

 cepted, and its distinct character admittecl. Stems erect, terete, slender, of the size 

 of a goose quill, and 1 foot long. Flowers in a terminal raceme, 1 inch to H across. 

 Sepals narrow, lanceolate. Petals very broadly ovate, pointed. Lip distinctly 

 3-lobed — middle lobe broadly obovate, "n-ith a small mucro or point in the slightly 

 sunken centre — lateral lobes small, erect, between which and at the base of the 

 middle lobe is a tuft of pui-ple hairs. Colour of the flower pure white, except the 

 pui-ple eye. A very elegant little Dendrolium, which first attracted my attention as 

 ornamenting the hair of the Burmese girls in Maulmain. It was some time before 

 I could find it. At last, when ascending the Sal ween River in company with the 

 then Col. Fytcho, he spied an Orchid on the overhanging branch of a tree. It 

 proved to be the desired plant. The name records the circumstance. 



Space will not admit of further notice of this genus, profuse as it is in number 

 of species and in beautiful forms. The object here proposed is not a scientific 

 description of all Burmese Orchids (this would require a work of some considerable 

 length), but only just sufficient brief notice of some of the most striking species 

 as may enable an amateur collector to distinguish them, and incite him to their 

 study. 1 pass on, therefore, to other genera. 



CRrpiocHiirs. 

 A small genus of obscure plants, of which Burma has but one representative, 

 as far as is at present known, C. meirax. It is a dwarf species, stemless, consisting 

 wlioUy of a flattened pseudo-bulb \ an inch in diameter, attached to the tree on 

 which it grows by minute fibrous roots. Each bulb produces 1 sessile flower, 

 large for the size of the bulb. Its peculiar feature is that the exterior segments 

 of the flower cohere at their edges, and thus form a sort of tube concealing the lip. 

 It has a 2-celled anther with 4 pollen-masses in each. 



Eria (including Ania). 

 A genus which includes plants of widely different size and appearance — some 

 being small stemless plants with flattened pseudo-bulbs, not more than \ inch high, 

 bearing a pair of small leaves and 1 or 2 obscure flowers in their axis ; others being 

 a foot or more high, with short or lengthened pseudo-bulbs, and leaves leathery and 

 smooth, or thin and plicate, and variously disposed. The inflorescence al_so_ is 

 various, being either in lateral or axillary racemes, or in dense heads, or consisting 

 of solitary flowers on a thm peduncle. It is distinguished from Bend rob mm by 

 having 8 pollen-masses instead of 4, which are round or pear-shaped, and united 

 in 1 or 2 bundles at their base by an elastic cobwebby material, not fi-ee as they are 

 in that genus. The lip, articulated with the much prolonged and projecting base 

 of the column, is commonly 3-lobed, and has crested or raised lines on its disk. 

 Species about 35. 



