184 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AND PRODVCTIOSS. 



pollen-mass itself. It differs entirely from the so-called caudicle of Yandcaj, ■nhicli 

 is no part of the pollen-mass, and to wliich Bentham prefers to give the name nt/'pcs. 

 The Ophrydcffi are mostly Orchids of temperate or suh-tiopical regions ; evidently, 

 however, not confined to them, as our ever-widening knowledge of this Order serves 

 to prove. Aceras anihropopliora is common in our -English woods. Our solitary 

 Burmese species, Aceras angustifulia, was first (I believe) found in Simla and else- 

 where iu Northern India. Wight, who figures it among his " Iconos," says, "This 

 genus has not yet been found so far South," meaning, I suppose, as Madras. We 

 have now brought it nearly as far South. It is a mean plant, but interesting in this 

 fact, that it is so fur separated from its congeners. 



GvMXADExi.i, R. Br. 



As the object proposed in these " iS'otes on the Orchids of Bui-ma " (as they may 

 be called) is rather to make the subject popularly intelligible than to affect scientific 

 accuracy, and as the distinctions between the different genera in this Section turn 

 on minute and purely technical points, I shall omit them, and confine myself to 

 a short and familiar description of a few of the most notable species. 



G. SESAMOIDES. 



A common terrestrial Orchid about Maulmain and Martaban. It is about a foot 

 high and has a leafy stem, the leaves of which are little more than scales below, 

 growing larger upwards. The flowers are solitary in the axils of the leaves, and 

 of a large size, lA inch long. The sepals and petals are connivent, i.e. adhere 

 together on the upper side of the flower, pointed, with upturned ends. The lip is 

 very large, pure white, very broad when expanded, but in its undisturbed state 

 convolute, undivided, and furnished with a spur behind. The roots are fleshy with 

 1 round bulb. Another species is equally or even more abundant, and is distinguished 

 by a narrower lip and its varvLng colour, which is green, or lilac, or deep purple. 

 This is G. mijeri. 



Pekisttlus Bl. 



P. C0>-STKICTUS. 



_A tall stout terrestrial Orchid, often 2 feet or more high, with large, broad, 

 stem-clasping leaves and a dense spike of numerous pure white flowers, intermingled 

 with long lanceolate bracts. The lip is trifid, and has a small, round, almost 

 detached, scrotiform pouch at its ba.so. Also common during the rains in the 

 neighbourhood of JIaulmain. Roots fleshy and fibrous, with a large bulb. There 

 are 3 species of this genus. 



PL.\TANTnER.i, Richard. 



P. Stjsaxn^. 



A very handsome and apparently a very rare terrestrial Orchid. Stem, a foot 

 or more high, leafy, terminated by 4 or 5 pure white flowers of very large size, 

 with an immensely long spur. The flowers of the plant found by me (I never found 

 but one) were 3 inches across, and the spur 4 inches long only, but Wight, who 

 figures it in his Icones (for it is also found in the Pulney Hills) represents it as 

 4-i inches across with a spur "twice its length." He calls it a magnificent species, 

 and adds : " I have never met with it except once." The sepals are veiy large and 

 broad, the petals very narrow and acute. The lip is 3-))arted, the middle lobe being 

 straight and linear, and the side lobes broad and laoiniated, or deeply jagged. I 

 may note here once for all that these terrestrial Orchids must be sought for in the 

 rains, when only they flower. They die down at the apjiroach of the dry season, 

 when they are kept alive, as our European species are in the winter, by their under- 

 ground bulbous root. P. SasaiDia' is also a native of Java, China, and Ni]>ul, and 

 is a plant that has been long known to botanists, having been called Orchis Siimnmi' 

 by Linnanis himself. 



