159. ORGHIDACE.E. [28. Brides. 



27. VANDA, Br. 



Epiphytes without pseudobulbs, with leafy stem and very coriaceous 

 or fleshy flat keeled or terete leaves and usually large (rather small in 

 lyarvi flora) showy flowers in simple racemes. Sepals and petals 

 subequal, spreading or incurved, with narrowed base, lip large with 

 large or small, rarely 0, side-lobes placed on the sides of the saccate 

 or spurred base, midlobe fleshy, palate usually ridged or lamellate. 

 Column short and stout with scarcely produced foot ; anther 2 -celled, 

 rostellum obscure, pollinia 2, didymous, sub-globose or obovoid with 

 broad flat geniculate caudicle and rather large gland. 



Flowers • 6- • 7" diam. yellow with pink or bluish lip . . . 1 . parviflora. 



Flowers 1-5-2" diam., colours not yellow, tessellated . . . 2. tessellata. 



1. V. parviflora, Lindl. 



A small epiphyte with short leafy stem 4-6" and distichous fleshy 

 leaves 3-4" long keeled beneath, margins upturned and tips irregu- 

 larly premorse. Flowers yellow -6- -7" diam. with pink lip (according 

 to my field notes on several occasions, with fleshy blue ridges, F.B.I.), 

 in 3-12-fld. erect racemes 2-4" long with long white pedicels -7" long 

 and very small scarious bracts at the base of each flower. 



Singbhum ! Manbhum, Camp. ! Ranchi ! Palamau, at Xeterhat, elev. 3000 ft. ! 

 Sant. Parg. Swindon ! Fl. April-May. 



Sepals • 3", oblanceolate, somewhat waved ; petals slightly narrower, lip with a 

 pronounced mentum and spur, side lobes erect decurrent on the mentum • 15" long, 

 minutelv dotted with pink, midlobe -2" oblong with somewhat dilated rounded 

 yellow tip, floor or palate thickened with 2 calli and dotted pink. Foot of column 

 and spur together nearly • 2", column short erect • 07", anther with lateral hinged 

 scale-like valves, cells finally confluent. Pollinia waxy deeply 2-fid. 



2. V. tessellata, Hook. 8yn. Vanda Roxburghii, Br. ; Cymbidium 



tesselloides, Eoxb. ; Epidendron tessellatun, Roxb. ; brides 



tesselatum, Lindl. 

 Stems 1-2 ft. with narrow complicate premorse leaves G-8" and 

 handsome tessellated flowers 1-5-2" diam. in long G-lO-fld. suberect 

 racemes. Sepals and petals yellowish-green or blueish with brown 

 nerves, subequal clawed obovate waved, lip half as long to nearly 

 as long with small acute side-lobes and panduriform violet or crimson 

 midlobe with dilated truncate 2-lobed tip, spur conical. 



One of the commonest species in Behar and C'hota JSTagpur, especially on Mohwa 

 trees, probably in all districts of Chota Nagpur ! Mayurbhanj, Hooper ! Fl. 

 April-Jidy. 



Very variable in colouring but always recognizable from the tessellated sepals 

 and petals, margins often white. Midlobe of lip with fleshy ridges and white 

 margins and mesial lines. 



28. BRIDES, Low. 



Epiphytes without pseudobulbs, with leafy stems and linear, 

 coriaceous leaves. Flowers showy, usually many in dense or lax 

 decurved racemes. Sepals broad, spreading, lateral adnate to the 

 base or foot of the column. Petals broad, spreading. Lip spurred, 

 side-lobes sometimes 0, midlobe larger than the side-lobes or smaller 

 and incurved between them. Column short, foot long or short, 

 rostellum short or long and bifid, anther 2-celled, beaked or not, 



1181 



