CHAPTER @Ey) 
SACCOLABIUM. 
AMONGST the smaller-flowered Orchids of tropical regions 
cultivated in this country, the genus Saccolabium assuredly 
occupies the first piace. In the majority of the species 
the flowers are individually small—rarely, indeed, more 
than tin. in diameter—but any deficiency in size is amply 
compensated by the profusion in which they are produced ; 
whilst for delicacy of colour, fragrance, and display they are 
unsurpassed. At the present time, the species known 
number between thirty and forty, some of these being 
recent discoveries in Burmah, &c. Almost every one 
is attractive enough to be worth cultivating, many of 
them being of exquisite beauty. They are dwarf, evergreen 
plants, with fleshy, channelled (rarely terete) leaves, ar- 
ranged in two opposite rows on the upright stem. In 
the majority the flowers are numerously and closely set 
on upright or pendulous racemes, which spring from the 
axils of the leaves. In some species, as in S. bellinum, 
the flowers are few, but comparatively large, and are 
arranged in a corymb or head. The spreading sepals and 
petals are mostly alike in size and colour, the salient feature 
of the flower being the lip, which is attached to the base 
of the column, and is prolonged downwards, forming a spur 
or pouch—a character on which the generic name is 
