90 GXLVIII. ORCHIDB^. (J. D. Hooker.) [G-aleola. 



Mr. Cathcart's drawing represents a portion of a stem as thick as the little 

 finger, bearing a branched panicle a foot long, which, as well as the flowers, is dull 

 yellow and furfuraceous ; the flowers are 1-1^ in. diam., the lip not nearly as concave 

 as in G. Hydra, yellow with red veins. A remarkable plant, very unlike its con- 

 geners, but the drawing of the habit, column, anther, and pollen leave no doubt as 

 to its genus. 



76. VANILLA Swartz. 



Climbing, rooting, branched, leafy or leafless shrubs ; stems terete or 

 angled. Leaves sub sessile, coriaceous or fleshy. Peduncles short, axillary ; 

 flowers large. Sepals and petals subequal, spreading. Lip with the claw 

 adnate to the column, which is embraced by its broad concave limb. 

 Column elongate ; anther incumbent, cells separate ; pollen granular. 

 Capsule long, fleshy, 1-celled, loculicidally 3-valved, without septa. 

 Species about 20, tropical. 



The Indian species of this genus are most scantily represented in Herbaria, and 

 imperfectly by drawings or descriptions. 



* Stem leafless. 



1. V. Walkeriae, Wight Ic. t. 932 ; stem very stout, flowers 2 in. 

 long, sepals oblanceolate, petals broader spathulately obovate acute margins 

 undulate, epichile of lip ovate acute margins undulate, disk with two 

 ridges below the middle. TJiwaites Enum. 311. 



TRAVANCORE and TREVANDRUM, Wight. CEYLON, Walker. 

 Stem as thick as the thumb. Racemes 5-6 in., many-fld. ; flowers white ; bracts 

 ovate. 



2. V. Wig-htiana, Lindl. in Wight Cat. 2091 ; flowers 1 in. long, 

 sepals linear-oblong, petals lanceolate, epichile of lip ovate, its disk fringed 

 with long hairs, V. aphylla, Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orchid. 436, in part (not 

 ofBlume). 



The DECCAN PENINSULA, Wight. 



The specimens are very imperfect, and the description of the flowers is taken from 

 a rude sketch by Lindley. The flowers are not half the size of those of 

 F. Walker ice. 



3. V. Parish!!, Reichb. /. Otia Hot. Hamb. 39; flowers 1-H in. long, 

 sepals linear-oblong, tips dilated cuspidate, petals broadly oblanceolate 

 acuminate, lip trumpet-shaped, epichile small ovate or rounded crisped 

 with a thick belt of long hairs down the centre and a dense brush at the 

 base, side lobes with long scattered hairs within. 



TENASSERIM, Parish. 



This may prove the same as F. Wiffhtiana, Lindl. It is very near the Javanese 

 V. aphylla, Blume. 



** Stem leafy. 



4. V. Itfoonii, Tliwaites JEnum. 312 ; leaves elliptic- or linear-oblong 

 often falcate obtusely acuminate, lip with a broad crenulate undulate 

 apex, a thick pencil of excessively fine hairs on the disk, and beyond it 

 towards the apex some loose flexuous bristles. 



Leaves 5-7 in., many-nerved, subsessile. Spikes 1-3 in., very stout, many-fld. ; 

 bracts ovate, -} in., obtuse ; sepals about 1 in. long ; pencil of hairs on the disk 

 terminating below in a stout stipe, hairs of equal length forming a truncate brush. 



