176 oxxxiii. ORCHiDE.^ (rolfe). [Vanilla, 



20. VANILLA, Sw. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 590. 



Sepals subequal, free, more or less spreading. Petals similar to the 

 sepals or nearly so. Lip more or less adnate by its margins to the 

 column, forming a short or long tube, broadening upwards ; limb broad, 

 .entire or trilobed, more or less reflexed, its face smooth, puberulous or 

 variously appendiculate ; disc usually bearing a retrorse crest of hairs or 

 fringed scale-like appendages. Column elongated and curved, footless, 

 auriculate on the sides of the stigma. Anther affixed to the margin of 

 the clinandrium, incumbent, subglobose, operculate ; cells distinct ; pol- 

 linia granulose. Stigma transverse, situated under the rostellum ; 

 rostellum broad, membranous, with hinge-like base. Capsule linear or 

 oblong, fleshy, tardily dehiscent ; seeds subglobose, black and shining. — 

 Tall, climbing, branched herbs, leafy or the leaves reduced to sheaths. 

 Stems fleshy, bearing adventitious roots at the nodes. Leaves coriaceous 

 or fleshy, sessile or shortly petiolate. Racemes usually axillary, sub- 

 sessile or pedunculate. Flowers large and fugacious. Bracts ovate or 

 oblong, often small. — Rolfe in Journ. Linn. Soc. xxxii. 439. 



A genus of about 50 species, widely diffused through the forest region of the 

 tropics, most numerous in Tropical America, with eleven Asiatic representatives, and 

 three Mascarene ones, beside the following nine which come within our limits. 

 Stems leafy. 



Tube formed by the union of the lip and column about 

 as broad as long. 

 Leaves broadly lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate. 

 Column with upper third free from the lip. 

 Leaves 2-5 in. long ; front lobe of lip trian- 

 gular . . . . . . . 1. V. africana. 



Leaves 6-7 in. long ; front lobe of lip broadly 



oblong . . . . . . . 2. V, acuminata. 



Column with upper two-thirds free from the lip , 3. V. cucullata. 

 Leaves oblong or elliptic-oblong. 



Front lobe of lip narrow in front and acute ; 



inflorescence often branched . . . 4<. V. ramosa. 

 Front lobe of lip subobtuse; inflorescence un- 

 branched. 

 Sepals 10-11 lin. long, two-thirds as long as 



the pedicels . . . . . . 5. F". crenulata. 



Sepals 7-8 lin. long, half as long as the 



pedicels . . . . . . Q. V. ovalifoUa. 



Tube formed by the union of the lip and column much 

 longer than broad. 



Leaves oblong 1. V. imperialis. 



Leaves broadly elliptic-ovate or suborbicular . 8. V. grandifolia. 

 Stems leafless 9. F. Roscheri. 



1. V. africana, Lindl. in Journ. Linn. Soc. vi. 137. Stem slender, 

 high climbing. Leaves petiolate, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 2-5 in. 

 long, J-I4 in. broad. Raceme J in. long. Bracts ovate, acute, IJ lin. 

 long. Sepals and petals not seen. Lip trilobed, 8 lin. long ; side 

 lobes roundish-oblong, obtuse, denticulate ; front lobe deltoid-ovate, 

 acute ; disc with a retrorse hairy crest in the centre, extending as a 



