THE. PHILIPPINE 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE 
C; BOTANY 
Vou. 1V NOVEMBER, 1909 No. 5 
NOTES ON PHILIPPINE ORCHIDS WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF 
NEW “SPECIES; I= 
By Oakes AMES. 
(From the Ames Botanical Laboratory, North Easton, Mass., U. S. A.) 
It has been suggested by Dr. Fritz Kranzlin that the species of Den- 
drochilum which I have assigned to the section Acoridiwm ought to 
constitute a distinct genus. Dr. Kriinzlin asserts that the form of the 
labellum is quite distinctive in Acoridium on account of its likeness to 
the letter E. When I studied Dendrochilum tenellum in the preparation 
of Fascicle I of “Orchidaceae” I felt strongly that it belonged to a genus 
entirely distinct from Dendrochilum because of the absence of stelidia 
from the column and of the peculiar subfiliform leaves. Since then I 
have been convinced by a study of more material that Acoridium belongs 
to Dendrochilum. In the first place, the E-formed labellum on which 
Dr. Krianzlin lays emphasis is only characteristic of a majority of the 
species of the section Acoridium and is not found in D. turpe, D. oligan- 
thum, D. hastatum, D. Merrillii and D. ocellatum, which clearly belong 
to the section. In the second place the lack of stelidia in the species of 
§ Acoridium is not a wholly satisfactory differentiating character between 
it and § Platyclinis. It is not satisfactory because the lack of stelidia 
expresses a condition which is approached by well-defined species of Den- 
drochilum such as D. palawanense and because D. Merrillii in which the 
stelidia are absent from the column is in every other respect a well-marked 
species of Dendrochilum § Platyclinis. Furthermore, there is no habital 
distinction by which to separate the species of Acoridium from Den- 
drochilum. The linear leaf characteristic of D. tenellum, D. sphacelatum 
* Proof corrected by E. D. Merrill and C. B. Robinson. 
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