IS2 ORCH1DACEM. [ OBERONIA. 



1. OBERONIA, Lindl. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 675. 



Epiphytic herbs, with usually very short often tufted stems. 

 Leaves coriaceous or fleshy, usually ensiform distichous and equitant, t 

 very rarely terete. Flowers minute, in dense sub-cylindric spikes, 

 4>r racemes, expanding centrifugally. Sepals broadly ovate or 

 oblong, subequal. Petals as wide as or narrower than the sepals. 

 Lip larger than the sepals, 2-4-lobed, the hypochile more or less 

 concave. Column very short and stout, rarety winged. Anther 

 terminal or incumbent ; pollinia 4, cohering in pairs, waxy. 

 Species about 60, Indo-Malayan region, extending to China, Aus- 

 tralia and the Pacific Islands. 



Lip without lateral lobes or basal auricles . 1. 0. pachyrachis. 

 Lip with lateral lobes : # 



Lip oblong, with small lateral lobes . . 2. 0. Fcdconeri. 



Lip obcordate, with large broad lateral lobes 3. O. ensiformis. 



1. O. pachyrachis, Eeidib. /. in Herb. Kew. ex Hook. /. in F. B. 



1. F, 681 ; King and Pantl. in Ann. R. Bot. Card. Calc. viii, 4, t. 

 3 ; Duthie id., ix, pt. 2, 85. 



Stems very short, tufted. Leaves 3-4 in. long, narrowly ensiform and 

 slightly falcate, acute. Peduncle of inflorescence, short, broad, com- 

 pressed, adnate to a leaf nearly to its apex. Spike 4-5 in. long, 

 equalling or a little longer than its leaf. Flowers minute, pale-brown, 

 sunk singly in rather distant pits in the fleshy rhachis ; bracts ovate- 

 rotund, irregularly serrulate. Sepals elliptic, obtuse, glandular on 

 the back, not reflexed. Petals smaller, linear-oblong, obtuse, suben- 

 tire. Lip without lateral lobes or basal auricles, orbicular-elliptic, 

 obtuse, concave, entire or slightly erose at the apex and with a deep 

 depression at the base. Capsule short, turgid, often gibbous ; ribs 

 not prominient. 



Dehra Dun, on trunks and branches of trees (Vicary, Falconer, Duthie, 

 etc.). Flowers after the rainy season. DISTRIB. : Outer ranges of 

 Himalaya from Garhwal eastwards to Sikkim, up to 4,000 ft.; also 

 on the Khasia Hills. 



2. O. Falconer!, Hook. /. in F. B. I. F, 678 ; Ic. PI. t. 1780 ; 

 Prain Beng. PI. 1004 ; Duthie in Ann. R. Bot. Gard. Calc. ix, pt. 



2, 86, t. 94 ; CooJce FL Bomb, ii, 676. iridifolia, Wall, {not of 

 Lindl.), 



