114 ORCHIDS OF TIIE SIKKIM.HIMALAYA. 
1. Porpax FIBULIFORMIS, King and Pantling. 
Pseudo-bulbs crowded and often óverlapping, much depressed, reticulate, “5 in. in 
diam, eaves membranous, in pairs, oblanceolate, sub-acute, sessile, the edges minutely 
ciliolate, 195 to 175 in. long. Flowers in pairs, ‘25 in. long; their ovaries short, 
sigmoid. Sepals united to form a 2-lipped beaked sac, gibbous at the base. Petals 
oblong-lanceolate, sub-acute, faleate, not quite so long as the calyx, their apices connivent 
above the very small lip (l-nerved?). Zip half as long as the petals, oblong, clawed 
at the base, its upper surface concave, the side lobes broad and rounded, the part 
beyond them contracted and with laciniate edges, the apex caruncalate, a small retrose 
callus in front of the basal claw. Тһе foot twice as long as the column, tapering 
downwards. Rostellum large. Anther crested and tuberculate, its lip erose.  Pollinia 
barely cohering by their minute membranes. ría fibuliformis, King and Pantling in 
Jour. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. XLIV, pt. 2, page 336. 
Sikkim, in tropical valleys at the base of the hills, at Sivoke, &c.; in flower in 
Oetober; Pantling, No. 278. | 
This resembles Eria Lichenora, Lindl. and E. ustulata, Par. & Reichb. fil. Its sepals 
are, however, united to form a curious 2-lipped sac sparsely hispid externally, All parts 
of the flower are of a uniform dull red colour. 
Рглте 157.—Porpaz fibuliformis, King and Pantling. А plant; of natural size. Fig. 1 flower, 2 the 
petals, 3 floral bract, ovary, column and its foot, anther i» sifu and lip seen from the side, 4 - 
5 column and its foot апі anther im situ, rostelum апі stigma, 6 pollinia; aZ, enlarged. 
9. Porrax Metrax, King and Pantling. 
Pseudo-bulbs clustered, depressed-turbinate, almost discoid, :35 in. in diam., leafless 
at flowering time, covered by a set of thin fibres which radiate from the centre (apex) 
and are connected by a membrane, not reticulated when fresh but minutely so when 
dry. Leaves two, elliptic-oblong, mucronate, 1 in. in length, shortly petiolate. Flower 
about °5 in. long, solitary, from the centre of a pseudo-bulb; foral bract large, erect, 
concave, acuminate, twice as long as the shortly-stalked ovary. Sepals connate into a 
3-toothed bilabiate tube :3 in. long; the teeth ovate, shortly awned, the upper one 
re-curved. Petals shorter than the sepaline tube, oblong-lanceolate, blunt. Lip ovate- 
orbicular at the base, the apex obtusely acuminate, the base with a triangular notch; 
the side lobes rounded, their edges upturned; the terminal lobe oblong, tapering to the 
blunt apex, the margins entire. Column short, its foot twice as long as the column, 
curved, convex in front. Rostellum large, quadrate, overlapping the upper part of the 
Brus. Pollinia 8, unequal, broadly clavate, their bases granular and- slightly cohering 
in groups of four to a small membrane. ria Meiraz, М. E. Brown in Gard. Chron., 
1880, I, 603; Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. V, 186. Æ. Elvesii, Reichb. fil. in Gard. Chron , 
1883, 1, 402, Cryptochilus Meiraz, Par. and Reichb. fil. in Trans. Linn. Soc. XXX, 148. 
Dakin. at elevations of from 1,500 to 2,500 feet; Elwes, —: No. 249; in 
flower during October? Tenasserim, near Moulmein, Parish. | | 
The colour of the flowers is dull brown throughout. 
x In the Burmese specimens, described under the name of Ücypibelins Meiraz by 
Parish and Reichenbach filius, the edges of the petals are ciliolate and their surfaces 
slightly hairy, while the edges of the lip are serrulate. In the Sikkim plant the 
petals are glabrous and the lip is entire. The fowers of the Burmese plant also appear 
