Dendrobium. | ORCHIDES. 663: 
1. DENDROBIUM, Swartz. 
Epiphytes. Stems long and branching, or short and simple and 
thick, sometimes reduced to pseudobulbs. Leaves coriaceous or 
fleshy, never plaited. Flowers often large and handsome, rarely 
small. Sepals nearly equal, the lateral ones dilated at the base, 
and obliquely adnate to the foot of the column, forming a short 
spur or pouch. Petals about as long as the upper sepal. Lip 
contracted at the base and adnate to the produced foot of the 
column, rarely clawed, usually 3-lobed; lateral lobes embracing 
the column or spreading; middle lobe broad or narrow, spread- 
ing or recurved ; disc often lamellate. Column short, produced 
at the base, winged or angled or toothed at the top. Anther 
terminal, lid-like, 2-celled; pollinia 4, free, compressed, in col- 
lateral pairs in each cell. 
A large genus of about 300 species, most abundant in the Malay Archipelago, 
but extending as far north as Japan, and southwards through Australia and 
Polynesia to New Zealand. The single species found in New Zealand is endemic, 
but is closely allied to the Polynesian D. biflorwm, Swartz. 
1, D. Cunninghamii, Lindl. Bot. Reg. sub. t. 1756.—Stems 
usually much branched, slender, rigid, wiry, terete, polished, 1-4 ft. 
long; usually pendulous, but small specimens growing on rocks or 
in exposed places are often erect. Leaves numerous, distichous, 
alternate, 3-2in. long, 4-4in. broad, linear-lanceolate, acute, rigid 
and coriaceous, striate and more or less conspicuously 3-nerved ; 
sheaths truncate, grooved and transversely corrugated. Peduncles 
shorter or longer than the leaves, usually 1-3-flowered, rarely 
3-6-flowered; pedicels slender; bracts short. Flowers #in. 
diam., white and pink. Upper sepal oblong-lanceolate, acute ; 
lateral rather larger, broader at the base. Petals about equalling 
the sepals, oblong, obtuse. Lip attached by a short claw to the 
foot of the column, 3-lobed; lateral lobes small, ascending ; middle 
lobe spreading, large, almost as broad as long; margins undulate ; 
dise with 4 or 5 thin lamelle. Capsule oblong, 4in. long.—A. 
Cunn. Precur. n. 316; Raoul, Chow, 41; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 
i. 240; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 262. D. biflorum, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. 
Zel. 167, t. 26 (nct of Swartz). D. Lessonii, Col. in Trans. N.Z. 
Inst. xv. (1888) 326. 
NortH anD SoutH Isnanps, STEWART Istanp: Lowland districts from 
the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to 2000 ft. December-February. 
For some notes on the fertilisation, see a paper by Mr. G. M. Thomson in 
Trans. N.Z. Inst. xi. 419. I cannot separate Mr. Colenso’s D. Lessonii from 
the ordinary state of the plant, even as a variety. 
2, BULBOPHYLLUM, Thouars. 
Epiphytes. Rhizome creeping, often matted, usually more or 
less clothed with scarious sheathing scales. Pseudobulbs sessile in 
the axils of the scales, each crowned with 1 or rarely 2 leaves. 
