18. Eria.] 159. ORCHIDACE.^. 



18. ERIA, Lincll. 



Epiphytes, usually with pseudobulbs, sometimes with leafy stems. 

 Flowers never large nor brightly coloured, mostly spieate or racemose. 

 Sepals free adnate to the foot of the column and with it forming a 

 short or long and spur-like or saccate mentum. Lip sessile on the 

 foot of the column, incumbent, rarely mobile, entire or 3-lobed with 

 erect side-lobes. Column short. Anther imperfectly 4- or 8-celled, 

 pollinia normally 8, pyriform or broadly obovoid, attached in fours 

 by narroAv bases to a viscus. 



Flowers mod. -sized. Inflorescence woolly . . . . .1. flava. 

 Flowers very small. Inflorescence glabrous . . . . .2. muscicola. 



1. E. flava, Lindl. 



A moderate-sized epiphyte with a stout creeping branched rhizome, 

 branches ending in pseudobulbs 2-3-5" long with sheaths at their 

 base. Leaves 3-5 on a pseudobulb lanceolate-linear 6-10" long by 

 • 7-1-2" broad. Racemes lateral 5-10" long clothed all over including 

 the flowers with a dense wool. Flowers mod. -sized with sepals -5-- 7" 

 long, broadly lanceolate, yellow and 7(-9)-nerved inside. Petals 

 yellow, narrow, 3-5-nerved, lip yellow with purple markings •4-- 5" 

 long with 2 short lateral lobes and broadl}' oblong longer mid-lobe, 

 not woolly. Capsule linear, 1-1 - 3" long. 



Eecorded from Chota Nagpur in Benc/al Plants, but I find no specimens. My 

 own specimens are from the .Jalpaiguri district, and from its general distribution 

 it probably occurs near our northern boundary, esp. Purneah. Fl. Feb. 



2. E. muscicola, Lindl. 



A very small orchid only 1-2" high with depressed ovoid clustered 

 pseudo-bulbs -3- -5" long and several small leaves -5- -8" long. 

 Flowers few very small greenish in filiform racemes from between the 

 leaves. Bracts ovate or lanceolate. Sepals lanceolate finely acu- 

 minate 1-3-nerved, lateral falcate. Petals narrowly lanceolate 

 1-3 -nerved, lip narrowly lanceolate or slightly dilated in the middle. 



I have seen no authentic specimen from our area either at Calcutta or Kew, 

 but it is given in Bengcd Plants. Fl. June-Aug. 



L. oblanceolate or linear-oblanceolate b-lb" long. Flowers sometimes 

 described as pure white, • 2- • 25" long. 



19. BULBOPHYLLUM, Thouars. 



Epiphytes with a creeping rhizome bearing pseudobulbs which are 

 1- very rarely 2 -leaved. Flowers often small, solitary, capitate, 

 umbelled spieate or racemose, from the base of the pseudobulb, 

 rarely remote from it. Lateral sepals adnate to the foot of the column. 

 Petals usually smaller than the dorsal sepal. Lip jointed on the foot 

 of the column, mol)ile, usually very small and strongly recurved. 

 Column very short, often 2-aristate at the top ; anther 2-celled, 

 pollinia 4. 



I. B. triste, Reichh. 



A curious little plant with globose-ovoid small pseudobulbs under 

 1" and a very long slender scape 6-7", bearing a small raceme of small 



1176 



