824 | ORCHIDS OF THE SIKKIM-HIMALAYA. 
24. HABENARIA TENTACULATA, Reichb. fil Оба, p. 34; Trans. Linn. 
Soc. XXX, 139. 
Whole FON 6 to 18 in. high; the tuber obliquely ellipsoid. Stem with a single 
wide blunt sheath at its base. Leaves two or three, often unequal, borne close together 
near the base of the stem, oblong-elliptie or linear-oblong, sub-acute or acute, slightly 
narrowed to the short sheath; length 2 to 4 in., breadth “5 to 1:25 in.; peduncle of the 
spike naked except for a few scattered linear-lanceolate bracts about :5 in. long. Spike 
very narrow, 1°25 to 6 in. long, laxly-flowered. Flowers scarcely broader than the 
apices of the long erect ovaries, "15 in. across at the mouth; floral bract lanceolate, 
acuminate, rather shorter than the sessile ovary. Sepals unequal; the dorsal ovate-oblong, 
obtuse, conniving with the petals to form a hood; the lateral pair narrowly oblong, 
obtuse, erect. Petals ovate, acute, their bases oblique. Zip longer than the lateral 
sepals, deflexed from the middle; the lower half broadly oblong and having a transverse 
callus at the base; the apical half 3-lobed, the middle or apical lobe shorter and 
broader than the lateral, oblong, blunt; the lateral lobes linear, faleate, their apices 
diverging; spur small, ovoid, much contracted at the neck, shorter than the sepals, 
smooth within. Column depressed. Anther-cells discrete, their tubes short; pollinia 
pyriform, the caudicles half as long, tapering to the minute narrowly oblong dark 
red glands; staminodes large, diverging. Stigmas two, triangular, lying by the sides 
of the mouth of the spur, their apices diverging.  Krüntzlin in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. XVI, 
160. М. lacertifera, Benth. Fl. Hong-Kong, 362; Hook. fl. Fl. Br. Ind. VI, 163. 
Ceeloglossum lacertiferum and C. acuminatum, Lindl. Gen. and Spec. Orch. 302. Peristylus 
chloranthus, Lindl. in Kew Journ. Bot. VII (1855), 37. Gymnadenia (?) tenuiflora, Lindl. 
in Wall, Cat. 7055. Cheradoplectron Spiranthes, Schauer in Pl. Meyen., (Act. Leopold.), 
436, t. 13, C. ? 
Sikkim. Guru Bathan (1,500 feet ?); in flower during August; Pantling No. 345. 
Khasia Hills; Hooker, Mann, Gellatly. Naga Hills; Prain Nos. 43, 64; also in Tenas- 
serim, Tavoy and Penang; Wallich. Distrib.— Hong-Kong. 
The colour is green throughout. 
A widely distributed species varying as to its Пр, which is said to be in some 
specimens only obtusely 3-toothed, while in others it is deeply tripartite and the side 
lobes are long and resemble tentacles. "Тһе flowers are very small and the material in 
collections is scanty. We have followed Krintzlin in adopting Reichenbach’s name for 
this rather than Bentham’s, as the former is the older. For the Sikkim form of the. 
plant it is, however, very inappropriate, as no part of the flower suggests tentacles. It 
appears to be in Hong-Kong only that plants are found with much elongated side lobes 
to the lip and it was for these that Lindley suggested the name Glossula tentaculata 
(Bot. Reg., t. 862) This is allied to М. aristata, Hook. fiL, but is distinguished from 
that species by having its leaves radical and not scattered along the stem, and nr 
having flowers only about one-third as large. In М. aristata, moreover, the lip is 
narrowed at the base and has linear horizontal side lobes; whereas in this the lip is 
broad at the base and is divided near the middle into с linear lobes, all of which 
are decurved, 
Рглте 427.— Habenaria tentaculata, Reichb. fil. A plant, of natural sise. Fig. 1 bract, ovary and 
flower, 2 apex of ovary, base of Е lip and column showing the anther-cells (а), а staminode (s v), 
a stigma (s, and the callus at the base of the lip (с), 8 the petals, 4 pollinia; all. enlarged. 
