ORCHIDACE#. 177 
petioled, the floating long-petioled, ovate-lanceolate oblong or 
cordate. Flowers solitary, 2-sexual, sessile within a tubular long- 
peduncled spathe. Sepals 3, lmear or oblong. Petals 3, longer 
than the sepals, obovate or urbicular, with fieshy basal appendages. 
Stamens 6-15, in 2-5 series, anthers erect. Ovary oblong, beaked, 
almost 6-celled ; styles 6, linear, 2-fid.; ovules many, placentas 
diffuse. Fruit oblong, 6-valved, enclosed in the spathe, 3-6-winged. 
Seeds many, oblong, testa pulpy—Species 6 or 7, in tropical or 
subtropieal regions of the world. 
O. alismoides, Pers. Syn. i, 400; F. B. I. V, 662; Prain Beng. 
Pi. 997 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 671. Damasonium indicum, Willd ; 
Roxb. Fl. Ind. ti, 216. 
A succulent flaccid herb, submerged or partially floating. Leaves 
variable, 2-6 in. long, oblong or orbicular, cordate, membranous, un- 
dulate, 7-ll-nerved; petioles trigonous. Spathe 1-14 in. long, 
1-flowered, 5-6-winged.; peduncles varying in length with the depth 
of the water ; wings of spathe unequal, undulate ; mouth 5-6-toothed. 
Sepals small, oblong, green. Petals suborbicular, about 1 in. broad, 
white with yellow base, reticulate-veined. Ovary narrowly oblong ; 
placentas 6-12. Fruit 1-1} in. long, ellipsoid, crowned by the per- 
sistent perianth. 
Abundant within the area of this flora, in tanks and slow-running water. 
DistriB. : Throughout India and in Ceylon, extending to Australia. 
CVII.—_ORC HIDACE 2. 
Herbs of various habit, rarely shrubby, of two principal forms : 
either (1) terrestrial tuberous-rooted herbs with annual herbaceous 
simple stems and solitary or spicate or racemose flowers; or (2) 
epiphytes with perennial stems or branches variously thickened 
and often forming a pseudobulb, flowering from the top sides or 
base of the pseudobulb ; bracts usually present. Flowers 2-sexual, 
irregular, often showy. Perianth superior, of 6 free or variously 
combined segments in two series ; 3 outer segments (sepals) more 
or less alike, the 2 lateral sometimes connate in a short or long sac 
or spur-like base (mentum) ; 3 inner (petals) dissimilar, the 2 lateral 
alike, the other (lip) usually very differently shaped. Stamens 
and style united in a column opposite the lip ; fertile anthers usually 
