204 OrchideCE, \piploprora. 



lying flat on the bark of the tree on which the plant grows, an 

 inch long or shorter, obtuse, green; ped. with the spike \-\ 

 in., very slender, erect, few- or many-fld. ; bracts minute, 

 keeled ; fl. about o'^ in. long, perianth shortly tubular, 6-fid., 

 Sep., pet., and lip acute, all of equal length, and all conformable, 

 except the lip, which is cymbiform with free margins, and has 

 a large sac or spur with a rounded tip as long as the rest of 

 the perianth ; column very short, with 2 stout projecting arms 

 in front; anth. depressed, sub 4-celled, pollinia sessile on the 

 broad gland ; fr. sausage-shaped, \-\ in. long. 



On branches of trees in moist region ; apparently rare Hunasgiriya; 

 abundant in Peradeniya Botanic Gardens; Hakgala Gardens. Fl. at any 

 time of year; pale greenish-orange. 



Endemic. 



This very minute plant, barely half an inch in height, is no doubt 

 constantly overlooked. It was discovered by the late H. de Ahvis, 

 draftsman to the Bot. Gardens, in January 1853. 



The above character of T. Alwisii may want modification. It is 

 founded chiefly on Thwaites's description drawn up from a single 

 specimen and more recent drawings in the Peradeniya Herbarium, which 

 represent what appears to be an early state of the plant, with linear 

 green leaves, but these may be roots ; the analyses accompanying the 

 drawings are not quite satisfactory. — J. U. H. 



38. DZPZ.OPRORA, Hk.J. 



An epiphyte; stem short, stout, curved, leaf)-, with long 

 vermiform roots from the bases of the short lower internodes, 

 clothed with leaf sheaths ; 1. sessile, distichous, narrowly 

 oblong, flat, flaccidly coriaceous, tip unequally 2-toothed ; ped. 

 leaf-opposed, stout, erect, few-fld.; fl. rather small, spicatc, 

 sep. spreading, dorsally winged, oblong, obtuse; pet. rather 

 smaller, ovate or obovate-oblong, obtuse; lip rather longer 

 than the lateral sep., adnate to the base of the column, 

 narrowly cymbiform, abruptly contracted into an incurved long 

 laterally compressed beak with a forked tip, disk with a 

 fleshy keel; column very short, truncate, foot O; anth. 

 depressed hemispheric, beaked, 2-celled, pollinia 4, 2 hemi- 

 spheric, each with a smaller adnate to its flat surface, strap 

 short, gland small. — Monotypic. 



I>. Championll, Hk.f. in Fl. B. Imi. vi. 26 (1890). 



Vanda bicaudata, Ihw. Enum. 429. Ltiisia bicaudala, 1. c. 302. 

 Cottonia Chtiinpiottii, Lindl. Trim. Syst. Cat. Ceyl. 89. C. P. 3494) a-nd 

 C. P. 3693 (pait). 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 26. Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 2120. Ann. Bot. Gard. Calcutt. 

 viii. t. 274. 



