Gastrodia.l Orcllidece. 2 IS. 



triangular, acute, disk with two broad pubescent ridges from 

 the base to beyond the middle ; fr. 5-6 in., elongate, very 

 slender. 



Dry and intermediate regions below 1000 ft., scrambling over bushes ; 

 common. Fl. March-June; pure white, hairs on lip orange. 

 Also in S. India. 



2. V. Bloonii, Thw. Enum. 312 (1861). [Plate XCL] 

 Rolfe in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxxii. 461. V. aromatica {?), Moon, Cat. 60. 

 C. P. 3204. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 90. 



Stem many feet long, terete, flexuous, as thick as the little 

 finger, deeply channelled; 1. 5-7 in., subsessile, oval or linear- 

 oblong, obtusely acuminate, fleshy ; fl. crowded on a very 

 stout ped. ; bracts short, ovate, subacute; pedicel with ov. 

 A-ii in.; sep. and pet. about i in. long, oblong-lanceolate, 

 subacute, spreading from an erect base; lip entire, tube | in. 

 long, margins of limb undulate, disk with a broad hirsute band 

 from the upper third to the tip, and a hemispheric tuft of 

 papillae at the base of the band ; fr. linear-oblong, 4 in. long. 



Moist region below 2000 ft., in thick jungle; rather rare. Kalulara; 

 Galle ; Heneratgoda, abundant; Hunasgiriya. Fl. April; sep. and pet. 

 buff-coloured, lip yellowish-white; a very pretty orchid. 



Endemic. 



The otificinal Mexican Vanilla (K planifolia^ Andr.), cultivated in 

 Ceylon, may be recognised by its pale-green fl., linear-oblong sep. and 

 pet., the lip adnate to the sides of the column, and column villous in 

 front.— J. D. H. 



53. GASTRODIA, Br. 



Terrestrial, leafless, pale or brown herbs, (saprophytes ?) 

 with tuberous rootstock, and sheaths on the simple stem ; fl. 

 in terminal lax racemes ; sep. connate with the pet. in a 

 ventricose 5-lobed tube or sac, cleft in front ; lip inserted on 

 the foot of the column and to the base of the tube of 

 the perianth included, entire, spur o ; column long, narrow, 

 sides narrowly winged towards the top, base produced into a 

 long or short foot, stigma prominent, anticous ; anth. terminal, 

 very convex, erect, 2-celled, pollinia 2, pyriform, free, coarsely 

 granular, without strap or gland. — Sp. 9 ; 5 in Fl. B. Ind. 



G. javanica, Lindl. Gen. and Sp. 0?'ch. 384 (1840). 



Thw. Enum. 311. C. P. 311. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 123. Bl. Bijd. v. t. 4 {Epiphancs javanica). 



Rootstock very slender, creeping, straight or flexuous, 

 swelling here and there into globose or ovoid tubers \ in. diam., 

 and provided with tuberiferous rootlets ; stem 3-6 in., erect, 



