72 ORCHIDACE^ 



Whitford (no. 140). — January 30, 1904, U. B. Copeland 

 (no. 254). — On mossy rock ledges near streams and on living 

 trees, Baguio, Prov. Benguet, Luzon, March 9, 1904, A. D. E. 

 Elmer (no. 5842). — Alt. 350 ft., Mt. Mariveles, Prov. Bataan, 

 Luzon, January 31, 1904, E, B. Copeland (no. 273). 



PHOLIDOTA, Lindl. 



P. imbricata, Hook., Exotic Flora 2 : 1. 138 : '^ Parasitic. Root 

 a few simple or branched fibres. Stems short, clustered, when 

 young subcylindrical, and clothed with sheathing large scales, 

 brown and membranaceous at the border, in the old plant consti- 

 tuting a rather large, ovato-oblong, subtruncated and sulcated 

 fleshy bulb, partially clothed with the old scales : at the summit 

 bearing only a single broadly lanceolate, acute, erect, striated leaf, 

 attenuated and convolute at the base, somewhat waved at the 

 margin. 



" From the extremity of the stem, and within the convoluted 

 base of the leaf, arises the solitary flower-stalk, almost a foot in 

 length, slender, pendent, naked, having at the extremity a long, 

 crowded, distichous spike of flowers, which, in the state of bud, 

 are so closely imbricated and concealed with the ovate bracteas, 

 that the spike bears an apt resemblance to the tail of some spe- 

 cies of serpent. When the flowers expand, the bracteas are more 

 apart, the spike becomes much longer, and the flowers are pro- 

 truded, of a dingy yellow brown or tawny colour. 



" The petals are nearly equal in size, ovate, subconnivent, the 

 three outer ones broad, very concave, and keeled at the back, 

 the two inner ones smooth, slightly concave. Lip equal in length 

 with the petals, standing forward, of a roundish figure, remark- 

 ably ventricose, gibbous at the base, 3-lobed, lateral lobes erect, 

 intermediate one reflexed and subtrifid, its colour paler than the 

 petals. Column white, rather shorter than the petals, oblong, 

 dilated upwards, and subcucullate. Anther fixed just below the 

 summit in front, dark brown, 2-lobed, 2-celled, each cell opening 



