162 ORCHIDS OF THE SIKKIM-HIMALAYA. 
trace isin an article in Rees’ Cyclopedia (1816), Vol. XXIV, under Stelis. Smith, the 
author of the article alluded to, there describes, under the name Stelis racemosa, a plant 
which he says Dr. F. Buchanan found growing on trees in Nepal. The description 
which follows does not in the least suggest the plant named Sunipiæ by Lindley; and 
іп the Index Kewensis it is given as a synonym of Liparis odorata, Lindl. (Г. paradoza; 
Reichb. fil. The remaining Indian species of Stelis described by Smith are Ж. hirta, 
of which Smith says—‘‘gathered by Dr. Buchanan on mossy rocks in Upper Nepal; 
flowering in January” (a month when Swnipia scariosa, Lindl., is never in flower). 
“The inhabitants,” continues Smith, © call it Sunipiang, whence Dr. Buchanan named all 
the species of this section Sunipia, as composing a new genus, and the difference of 
their habit from the original 8720428 countenances this measure." Smith's brief description 
of his Stelis hirta reads like that of a Bulbophyllum; and, in the Index Kewensis, the plant 
is identified with Bulbophyllum hirtum, Lindl. Smith’s next species is Stelis odoratissima, 
“with capitate fragrant flowers.” This has been identified, and rightly as we believe, 
with Bulbophyllum odoratissium, Lindl. Smith's last Indian Stelis is S. biflora, a 2-flowered 
plant found by Dr. Buchanan in Nepal. The description here again is that of a 
Bulbophyllum. Smith winds up with the following remark: “We find among Dr: 
Buchanan’s drawings and descriptions several more species referred to his genus Sunipia, 
whose habit agrees exactly with our four last described. The parts of the flower, 
however, appear more unequal or irregular than properly belongs to Stelis, as is 
somewhat the case with our S. biflora. We leave them therefore (having no specimens) 
for the future illustration, as we hope, of their ingenious and accurate discoverer.” The 
probability thus appears to be that the majority of Buchanan’s species of Sunipia belonged 
to Bulbophyllum. Such, however, is the basis on which Lindley (in his Orchidearum 
Sceletos) built his monospecific genus Sunipia, attributing it to Buchanan-Hamilton, whose 
idea evidently was that Sunipia contained many species! It seems probable that the 
genus Sunipia never was defined by Buchanan, even in his own mind, in any but the 
vaguest possible manner; and he certainly never published any diagnosis of it. Smith, 
by including Buchanan’s Nepalese plants in the South American genus Stelis, threw no 
light (but rather darkness) on their affinities. Suntpia is thus a legendary genus; Jone, 
on the other hand (although dating only from 1853), is an excellently defined genus, 
into which the plant named Sunipia scariosa by Lindley most naturally falls; and to 
that genus we, without any hesitation, now reduce it. 
Prate 219.—Zone scariosa, King and Pantling. Part of a plant; of natural size. Fig. 1 a flower. 
front view, 2 ovary, column with anther i» situ, and lip, in profile, 3 petals, 4 apex of ovary and 
column showing the anther, pollinia and their appendages and the large sub-orbicular stigma, 5 the 
pollinia, one pair, in their natural relation to the caudicle, the other pair pulled away from the 
caudicle to show the elastio connecting threads; ай enlarged. ! : 
91. Cryptochilus, Wall. 
Epiphytal; pseudo-bulbs crowded, 2-leaved. Leaves coriaceous, usually petiolate. 
Inflorescence terminal, racemose, the peduncle naked. Flowers yellow or scarlet, secund, in 
distichous spikes, shorter than the subulate persistent bracts. Sepals connate in a sub- | 
cylindric or urceolate tube, the acute apices alone free. Petals included. Lip included, 
adnate to the short foot of the column. Column erect, slightly dilated at Ше apex; 
