182 ORCHIDACES. [ OBERONIA. 
1. OBERONIA, Lindl. + Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 675. 
Epiphytic herbs, with usually very short often tufted stems. 
Leaves coriaceous or fleshy,usually ensiform distichous and equitant, 
very rarely terete. Flowers minute, in dense sub-cylindric spikes, 
or racemes, expanding centrifugally. Sepals broadly ovate or 
oblong, subequal. Petals as wide as or narrower than the sepals. 
Lip larger than the sepals, 2-4-lobed, the hypochile more or less 
concave. Column very short and stout, rarely winged. Anther 
terminal or incumbent; pollinia 4, cohering in pairs, waxy.— 
Species about 60, Indo-Malayan region, extending to China, Aus- 
tralia and the Pacific Islands. 
Lip without lateral lobes or basal auricles . J. O. pachyrachis. 
Lip with lateral lobes :— 
Lip oblong, with small laterallobes . « 2. O. Falconers. 
Lip obcordate, with large broad lateral lobes 3. O. ensiformis. 
1. O. pachyrachis, Reichb. f. in Herb. Kew. ex Hook. f.in F. B. 
I. V, 681; King and Pantl. in Ann. R. Bot. Gard. Cale. viit, 4, t. 
3 ; Duthie id., ix, pt. 2, 8d. 
Stems very short, tufted. Leaves 3-4 in. long, narrowly ensiform and 
slightly falcate, acute. Peduwncle of inflorescence, short, broad, com- 
pressed, adnate toaleaf nearly to its apex. Spike 4-5 in. long, 
equalling or a little longer than its leaf. Flowers minute, pale-brown, 
sunk singly in rather distant pits in the fleshy rhachis; bracts ovate- 
rotund, irregularly serrulate. Sepals elliptic, obtuse, glandular on 
‘the back, not reflexed. Petals smaller, linear-oblong, obtuse, suben- 
tire. Lip without lateral lobes or basal auricles, orbicular-elliptic, 
obtuse, concave, entire or slightly erose at the apex and with a deep 
depression at the base. Capsule short, turgid, often gibbous; ribs 
not prominient. ; 
‘Dehra Dun, on trunks and branches of trees (Vicary, Falconer, Duthie, 
etc.). Flowers after the rainy season. Du1sTris.: Outer ranges of 
Himalaya from Garhwal eastwards to Sikkim, up to 4,000 ft.; also 
on the Khasia Hills. 
2. O. Falconeri, Hook. f. in F. B. I. V, 678; Ic. Pl. t=. 1780; 
Prain Beng. Pl. 1004 ; Duthie in Ann. R. Bot. Gard. Calc. ix, pt. 
2, 86, t. 94; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 676. O iridifolia, Wall. (not of 
Lindl.). 
