336 ORCHIDS OF THE SIKKIM-HIMALAYA. 
1 to 2 (rarely 2:5) in. long, rather densely-flowered. Flowers "85 in. across; floral bract 
oblong, sub-acute, smaller than the shortly-beaked ovary. Sepals unequal, the dorsal 
broadly ovate-elliptic with blunt apex and broad truncate base; the lateral pair longer, 
oblong, tapering to the sub-acute apex, falcate, sub-erect, not spreading, Petals trian- 
gular-lanceolate, sub-acute, longer than the sepals, and conniving with them into a 
hood. Јар flat, fleshy, rather longer than the lateral sepals, shortly and broadly 
clawed, broadly ovate, shortly and abruptly. acuminate, the edges sub-crenulate but not 
lobed; the upper surface with a small semi-lunar pit at the base near the column 
and two inclined plates (with their margins touching) extending from it to beyond the 
middle. Column very broad at the base, tapering upwards.  Anther-cells touching by 
their apices, their bases diverging, tubes none. Pollinia ‘ellipsoid, blunt at both ends, 
deeply 2-cleft, each inserted by a very short flat elastic caudicle into a large curved 
horn-like hollow gland. Staminodes oblong. Stigmas two, oblong, obtuse, transverse, 
lying above the orifice of the spur, their inner ends separated by the base of a large 
triangular hastately-lobed space lying between the anther-cells. Hook. fil Fl. Br. Ind. 
VI, 129. МН. grandiflorum, Lindl. MSS. in. Herb. Hook. fil. and T. Thoms. 
Sikkim, in the Lachen Valley; also in the Chumbi Valley in Bhotan; at elevations 
of from 11,000 to 12,600 feet; Pantling No. 381; also on the Cho-la and Pan-ka-la; 
in flower during June and July. 
The flowers are green throughout. The transverse lobes of the hastate space 
between the anther-cells may represent the rostellum, but the nature of .the rostellum 
in this genus, as in Habenaria, appears to be at present so obscure that we prefer to 
describe nothing under the name of rostellum. 
Prate 441.— Herminium Josephi, Reichb. fil. A plant, of natural size. Fig. 1 а flower, 2 column 
with the base of the lip still attached, anther-cells (empty) (а), staminodes (5), stigmas (s), entrance to 
spur (7), triangular hastate space between the anther-cells (ғ), З sepals and petals, detached and spread 
out, 4 bract, beaked ovary and bases of perianth, 5 lip, upper surface, 6 pollinia; ай enlarged. 
9. HERMINIUM ORBICULARE, Hook. fil. Ic, Plantar., t. 2199B. 
Whole plant 3 to 6 in. high; uber thin and elongate, Leaves variable, | 
all radical or all cauline, or scattered, or sometimes obsolete, elliptic-oblong with 
white reticulations, or linear-oblanceolate and entirely green, sessile or with a rather 
long sheath; length ‘5 to "85 in., breadth :15 to 4 in.  Peduncle of spike slender, 
elongate, bearing a few distant subulate bracts about *25 in. long; spike ‘5 to 1 in. 
long, rather densely-flowered. Flowers about "1 in. across (to end of lip); floral bract 
oblung-lanceolate, blunt, shorter than the sessile somewhat tumid oblique ovary. 
Sepals sub-equal, oblong, blunt, the dorsal broader than the lateral pair. Petals shorter 
than the sepals, sub-orbicular, elliptic, blunt. Zip slightly longer than the sepals, 
ovate-orbicular, entire, blunt, gibbous towards the base, slightly concave, minutely 
glandulose near the thickened apex; spur minute, cylindric, with a thick ridge inside 
on its posterior surface. Anther-cells parallel; pollinia broadly ovate, the caudicles very 
short; glands smail, orbicular. Stigmas conjoined under the anther-cells. Hook. fil Fl. 
Br. fad. VI, 130, 
