Tropidia.'] Orchidece. 219 



51. TKOFZDXA, Lindl. 

 Tall, terrestrial, leafy herbs, with a woody rootstock and 

 rigid root-fibres; stem simple or branched; 1. broad or narrow, 

 strongly veined, bases sheathing; fl. in short terminal spikes, 

 resupinate, bracts narrow, coriaceous, strongly veined, per- 

 sistent ; sep. connivent, dorsal free, lateral broader, more or less 

 connate at the base, forming a mentum with the base of the 

 lip; pet. falcate; lip superior, shorter than the sep., sessile on 

 the base of the column, entire, disk thickened towards the 

 margins, base saccate ; column short, stout, rostellum elongate, 

 at length bifid, stigma anticous; anth. dorsal, erect, acute, 

 cells contiguous, pollinia 2, clavate, granular, 2-cleft, pendulous 

 by a slender caudicle from a small gland on the tip of the 

 rostellum ; fr. oblong, cylindric. — Sp. 8 ; 6 in Fl. B. Ind. 



L. narrowly linear i. T. Thwaitesii. 



L. oval or oval-lanceolate 2. T. bambusifolia. 



I. T. Thwaitesii, Hk.f. in Fl. B. Ind. vi. 93 (1890). 



T. ciaxuligoides^ Lindl. Gen. and Sp. Orch. 497 (in part); Thw. Enum. 



314. C. P. 3565- 

 Fl. B. Ind. vi. 93. 



Rootstock small, branching, root-fibres slender and wiry, 

 or stout, as thick as the stems, woody; stem 6-12 in., slender, 

 about as thick as a duck's quill, clothed with the leaf-sheaths 

 except at the base; 1. suberect, 3-6 by |-f in., narrowly 

 linear-lanceolate, acuminate, membranous, 3-5-veined, with 

 many slender intermediate venules ; sheaths elongate, strongly 

 ribbed; ped. j-i in., with many circular, erect, strongly 

 nerved, empty bracts \-\ in. long ; spikes subcapitate, 

 many-fid. ; bracts as long as the ov., subulate from a short 

 broadly dilated base; dorsal sep. \ in, long, lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, 5 -veined, lateral \ in., ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 7- 

 veined, connate at the base with the lip in a saccate mentum ; 

 pet. shorter and broader than the dorsal sep., falcate, 

 3-veined ; lip much shorter than the sep., ovate, sub- 

 acute, recurved, with thick intramarginal ridges, margins 

 undulate; anth. linear-oblong, apiculate; fr. | in. long, linear- 

 oblong, straight, sessile, strongly 6-ribbed. 



Var. major, stem stouter, 1. 1-2 in., broad, 5-7-veined, fl. larger. 



Dry and intermediate regions in high grass ; rare. Bintenne; Minery; 

 Polonaruwa; Four Korales. Fl. March, July, November; yellow-green. 



Endemic. 



I am unable from Herbarium specimens to determine accurately the 

 character of the lip, column, and anther. — J. D. H. 



