164 A FLORA OF MANILA 
382. ORCHIDACEAE* (ORCHID oR DAPO FAMILY) 
Terrestrial or epiphytic, usually succulent or fleshy herbs, the former 
usually with thickened tuberous roots, the latter often with thickened bases 
(pseudobulbs), green, more rarely white and colorless or brownish sapro- 
phytes, exceedingly variable in habit. Flowers very irregular, perfect, 
rarely 1-sexual and monoecious. Perianth of 6 free or variously combined 
parts, in two sets, the three outer (sepals) more or less alike, the three 
inner (petals) dissimilar, 2 lateral ones alike, the third (lip or labellum) 
very different in shape. Stamens and style united into a column opposite 
the lip, the anther 1, rarely 2, on the front, or back of the column. Pollen- 
grains usually cohering in 1 to 4 pairs of waxy or powdery, globose to 
oblong masses (pollinia), in each cell. Ovary inferior, 1-celled; ovules 
exceedingly numerous, on 38 parietal placentae. Fruit a 1-celled, 3-valved 
capsule, containing innumerable, minute, almost dust-like seeds. 
Genera over 450, species about 7,000, in all parts of the world, chiefly 
tropical, about 77 genera and over 500 species in the Philippines. 
In the consideration of the Orchidaceae only those species growing 
naturally within the area covered by this work have been included, no 
attempt having been made to discuss the numerous forms brought in 
from the provinces and cultivated; to include the latter would necessitate 
a consideration of practically all the species with showy flowers found at 
low altitudes in the Philippines, as well as many of the forms with small ° 
and insignificant flowers. The presence of these cultivated plants in 
Manila is dependent on a continued supply, which varies in quantity and 
in number of species from year to year, so that a complete “orchid flora” 
for Manila for one year might not closely apply to those species found 
here in other years. 
As a rule only species that grow naturally in the Archipelago at low 
altitudes can be successfully grown in Manila, those found above altitudes 
of about 800 meters, usually soon dying when brought to sea level. The 
common native name for all epiphytic orchids, the bulk of our species, is 
dapo, but this name is applied to other epiphytic plants, such as species 
of ferns growing as epiphytes, and even to parasitic plants, such as 
Loranthus, etc. 
Among the more generally cultivated species are representatives of the 
genus Dendrobium, such as D. superbum Reichb. f., with large, somewhat 
rank-scented, purple flowers from its leafless stems, flowering in February 
and March, the flowers 5 to 6 cm long; D. heterocarpum Wall. (D. aureum 
Lindl.) with yellowish flowers about 3.5 cm long, and D. tawrinum Lindl. 
(Fl. Filip. pl. 429), with much-elongated stems, broad, elliptic leaves, and 
large pink and purplish flowers. Phalaenopsis, species with green leaves 
and large white flowers, P. amabalis Blume, and its variety aphrodite 
Ames, locally known as “dapo mariposa,” that is, butterfly-orchid: with 
mottled leaves and large pink flowers, P. schilleriana Reichb. f.; and with 
mottled leaves and white, purple-spotted flowers, P. stuartiana Reichb. f., 

1 For special papers on Philippine Orchidaceae, see Ames, O., “Orchida- 
ceae.” 1 (1905), 2 (1908), 3 (1908), and in Philip. Journ. Sci. 4 (1909) 
Bot. 593-600: 663-676; 6 (1911) Bot. 35-56; 7 (1912) Bot. 1-27: 125-148. 
