22 ORCHIDS OF THE SIKKIM-HIMALAYA. 
Leaves three to five, oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, plaited, acuminate, sheathing at the base, 
subsessile, slightly oblique, the edges undulate, often tinged with purplish-brown above, 
green beneath, 3:5 to 5 in. long, 1:5 to 2 in. broad. Inflorescence 8 to 10 in. long; the 
peduncle longer than the raceme, ebracteate, acutely 6-angled; raceme 6- to 12-flowered, 
lax; floral bract lanceolate, much shorter than the angled ovary, reflexed. Flowers 
large for the genus, ochraceous, much shaded with brown or yellow, with red blotches 
near the column, :5 to ‘75 in. in diam. Sepals broadly ovate, recurved, connate by 
their bases, the dorsal saccate at the base. Petals linear-oblong, acute, recurved. Lip 
ventricose, gibbous, forming a deep cup with short broad rounded overlapping basal 
auricles; the part immediately under the column divided into a four-chambered nectary, 
the apex bifid. Column very stout and with thick arms. Ridley in Journ. Linn. 
Soc. XXIV, 836; Hook. fil Fl. Br. Ind. V, 687. 
Sikkim-Himalaya, at 1,500 to 3,000 feet; Pantling No. 312; Clarke, King, Gammie, 
Anderson and others. 
A species with flowers unlike those of any other Sikkim Місгозіу із, and with the 
facies of those of Eulophia. The flowers are short-lived and they open only two or 
three at a time. 
PrarE 27.—Microstylis Josephiana, Reichb. fil A plant, of natural size. Fig. 1 a flower, front 
view, 2 column with section through the 4-chambered nectary, 3 anther, 4 pollinia; ай enlarged. 
3. Liparis, Richard. 
Terrestrial or epiphytal, pseudo-bulbous. eaves one or more, membranous or cori- 
aceous, continuous with the sheath, or thickened and jointed at the base. Flowers small, 
in terminal racemes, resupinate or not. Sepals spreading or recurved, the margins usually 
revolute. Petals much narrower than the sepals. Lip adnate to the base of the column 
usually broad, flat, or deflexed from the middle, sometimes concave, often with calli 
near the base. Column elongate, often arched, usually winged near the apex, and tumid 
or dilated and compressed at the base. Ал еу terminal; pollinia 4. { 
A genus of about 100 species; inhabitants of both temperate and tropical regions; numerous in 
British India—chiefly on the lower slopes of the various mountain ranges. 
In many species the pseudo-bulb is cylindric, and in such it is usually described as stem. In many also 
the young leaves and inflorescence are produced on a new growth rising from the base of the pseudo-bulb 
formed during the previous year; the new growth itself, after flowering and shedding its leaves, becoming 
the pseudo-bulb of next year. This is the case in all the Indian members of the section Mollifolie. 
In other species both leaves and inflorescence are produced at the apex of previously formed pseudo-bulbs. 
The latter, as well as the arrangement first described, obtains in the group Coriifolia. | 
бест, 1.—MoLLIFOLLE.—Leaves membranous, large, contracted at the base into and 
continuous with a long sheath. 
* Lip abruptly deflexod from the very base, flat. 
solitary. | 
Lip more or less deltoid, its apex very broad . . . . . . . . 1. 1. cordifolia, 
Lip more or less broadly elliptic or ovate, narrowed to the apex . . . 2, Т. Gamblei. 
