2 2 2 OrchideCB. [Epipogum. 



straight or flexuous, naked or with a few empty bracts above ; 

 raceme 3-6 in., elongating much during flowering; bracts very- 

 small, orbicular, pedicel with ov. A-f in.; fl. about ^ in. long 

 and broad ; lip articulate with the foot of the column, shorter 

 than the sep., broadly oblong, tip rounded, base with a large 

 bifid callus. 



Moist region below 2000 ft.; very rare. Hiniduma Kande, Pasdun 

 Korale ; Karavvita Kande, near Ratnapura ; near Eratne. FI. Feb.- 

 April ; white, slightly tinged with violet. 



Also in Java. 



Apparently a saprophyte, attaching itself to dead leaves by root- 

 suckers. There is some doubt whether this is really the Java species. 



154. EPIPOGUM, Ginel. 

 Terrestrial, leafless, pale brown or white herbs (sapro- 

 phytes?) with tuberous rootstock, and a simple sheathed 

 stem; fl. in terminal lax racemes; sep. and pet. subequal, 

 narrow, spreading; lip inserted at the base of the column, 

 about as long as the sep., entire, oblong, base spurred, disk 

 with glandular ridges, spur short, obtuse; column short, 

 strongly incurved, tiuncate, stigma anticous; anth. horizontal, 

 tumid, dorsally thickened, 2-celled ; pollinia 2, pyriform, bifid, 

 coarsely granular, each with a slender caudicle, but no gland. 

 — Sp. 2 ; I In Fl B hid. 



E. nutans, Lindl. in Joio-n. Linn. Soc. i. 177 (1857). 

 Thw. Enum. 311. C. P. 3205. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 124. Wight, Ic. t. 1759 {Podanthcra pallida). Ann. 

 Bot. Gard. Calcutt. viii. t. 335. 



Rootstock an oblong-ovoid tuber, 1-3 in. long, marked 

 with close set scars; stem 15-20 in., stout, up to \ in. diam. 

 at the base, cylindric, hollow, bearing many appressed broad 

 papery scales; raceme 3-8 in., lax-fld., rhachis stout, bracts 

 about 4 in., as long as the slender decurvcd pedicels, lanceo- 

 late, acuminate; sep. and pet. similar, l-'l in. long, about as 

 long as the ov., linear-lanceolaie, acute; lip rather longer than 

 the Sep., ovate, acute, tip recurved, serrulate, spur much 

 shorter than the lip. 



Moist region below 2000 ft., in damp shady places ; rather rare. 

 Hantane ; Rangala ; I'eradeniya, B. G., a rather frequent weed in the 

 beds under trees. Fl. Jan., May, July; like the rest of the plant, quite 

 wliite or speckled with red. 



S.W. India, E. Bengal, Java, Australia, W. Africa. 



A root-parasite or saprophyte ; the short rhizome, like the stem, is 

 hollow at flowerin'' time. 



