162 BURiFA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



their recnrvrd tips between them. Lip att;iched to the base of the curved spur, and 

 curved conformably to it, undivided, wedge shaped, rounded at the point, about the 

 length of tlie sepals. Cohimu CThnchieal, contained in the same line as the short 

 ovary. Anther deep purple. Petals white, lip pale yellow. Sepals, bracts, 

 flower-stem, and margin of lip red with hairs. Tavoy. I have been minute in my 

 desei'iption of tliis plant in the hope that it may be sent home and satisfactorily 

 determined. My dried specimens appear to have been lost, and, by a strange 

 omission, the pollen-masses are wanting from my drawing of the flowers. In the 

 absence of flowers, the plant exactly resembles Eria ventila of the Bot. Mnynzine, 

 No. 5807. In consequence of the dry and wiry character of the roots I could never 

 succeed in making it attach itself to a tree, and it always refused to grow with me. 



DEXDBOCniLFir. 



A small genus consisting of a few obscure plants. Pollen-masses 4, incumbent. 

 For further information reference must be had to books. Limited space allows only 

 brief notice here. Species 1 . 



D. PALLIPE-FLAVENS. 



A small plant, in general aspect like a Biilhophijlhiiif, bearing a slender raceme 

 about 3 inches long, of minute straw-coloured flowers from the base of the pseudo-bulbs. 



PnoLinoTA. 



The plants of this genus have either pseudo-bulbs, or jointed swollen stems, 

 with plicate leaves, and terminal, two-ranked, tb'ooping racemes. Pollen-masses (in 

 the only two species known to me) 4, ovate, joined in pairs to a slender caudicle. 

 Species 2. 



P. IJIBKICATA. 



Pseudo-bulbs ovate, oblong, terminated by a large lanceolate leaf, from the central 

 axis of which hangs a long flexible spike of closely imbricated greenish-yeUow 

 flowers, each almost concealed by a concave bract. Common. 



P. AETICFLATA. 



Stem articulated ; joints fleshy, cylimlrical, 3-4 inches long, terminated by a 

 pair of ovate leaves, from the axis of which droops a lax raceme of some dozen 

 greenish-yeUow flowers. It forms loose, irregular masses, rooting freely at the joints. 



OTOcniLrs. 



In general appearance like P. iiiihn'cata, but the flowers are slenderer, and have 

 a long, arched, half-rounded column resemliling that of Cmlogijne. Pollen-masses 4, 

 incumbent, concavo-convex, united in pairs by an elastic cobwebby mateiial. Species 

 two, forming large tangled masses on the branches of trees in moimtainous districts. 

 Flowers colourless and inconspicuous. 



Pleioxe. 



A small group of veiy distinct form and habit, by some united with Cfchgyne, 

 and indeed in the general structure of tlieir flowers having no essential difference ; 

 passing, moreover, by easy gradations, through C. SchiUeritina and C. uniflura into 

 that genus. The few plants belonging to this group are dwarf epiphytes growing 

 in dense patches on rocks and trees on the higher mountains, among moss. They 

 consist of rounded, more or less depressed, pseudo-bulbs, J or I inch in diameter and 

 height, from the base of which spring 1 or 2 strikingly beautiful flowers of extra- 

 ordinary size for that of the bulb. Leafless when in ilower. Although apparently 

 lateral, the flowers here (as in Ccelogyms) are really terminal. They grow at the end 

 of a new aad as yet undeveloped pseudo-bulb, which, in its early stage, forms the 

 foot-stalk of the flower. This, after the flower has perished, swells and eventually 

 becomes the recognized pseudo-bulb, often bearing at its end the now matured 

 fruit. Thus the leaves are formed later than the flowers, the reverse of what is 

 ordinarily the case in Orchids. 



