40 
ON THE ORCHIDACEOUS GENUS DIDYMOPLEXIS, Griff. 
By S. Kurz, Esq. 
Didymoplezis pallens, described and figured by Griffith in M‘Clelland’s 
* Caleutta Journal,’ iv. 383, t. 17 (1844), does not seem to have as 
yet been referred to its proper place. The genus was ranged by 
Lindley (* Vegetable Kingdom’), probably on the authority of Griffith 
himself, near Pogonia, with which however it has neither a close relation- 
ship, nor any natural affinity. A short time ago I found some specimens. 
of this interesting Orchid in flower and fruit. Lalso saw a drawing of it 
in the library of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Caleutta, and finally 
came across some dried specimens of an Orchid in the herbarium of 
the garden, which were named Arethusa Bengalensis, were evidently 
identical with our plant and probably collected by Griffith. In 1851 
we find Didymopleris pallens again described in Griff. Posthum. Pap. 
Monoc. 378. t. 343 et 944, as Arethusa ecristata, Griff., and, a year 
later, in R. Wight's Icon. t. 1758, under the name of Apetalum minu- 
tum, Wight. However, the plant was already described in 1825, by 
lume in his * Bijdrage, as Epiphanes Javanica. The Blumean plant 
is referred by Lindley with a query to Gastrodia, notwithstanding the 
position of the stigma. Blume (* Flora Javæ ") enumerates and figures 
three species of Gastrodia, and adopts Lindley’s view, as Miquel in his 
Flora of Neth. Ind. and Thwaites in his * Ceylon Plants’ have done. 
We should thus have the following synonymy chronologically ar- 
ranged, viz.:— 
Epiphanes Javanica, Blume, Bijdr. p. 421. t. 4 (1825). 
Gastrodia (?) Javanica, Lindl. Orchid. Plants. p. 384 (1830-46); 
Blume, Fl. Jave, p. 122, t. 52 (1828-1852) ; Mig. Fl. N. Ind. iii. 
p. 717 (1855). 
Didymoplezis pallens, Griff. in M'Clelland, Caleutta Journ. iv. 
P. 383, t. 17 (1844). 
Arethusa ecristata, Griff. Posthum. Papers Monocot. p. 378, t. 343 
et 344 (1851). 
Arethusa Bengalensis, Herb. Calcut. 
Apetalum minutum, Wight, Icon. t. 1758 (1852). 
I am not sufficiently versed in Orchidology to determine the proper ` 
value of the situation of the stigma. Lindley in his * Orchidaceous 
