1129 

 ORCHIDS OF THE BOMBAY PRESTDENOY. 



. BY 



G. A. Gammie, F.L.S. 

 Part XIII. 



(Continued from f age 174- of this Volume.) 

 30. Flatanthera. 



Terrestrial, leafy herb. Floivers large, in a raceme terminating 

 the leafy stem, sejmls unequal, free, petals simple, forming a hood 

 with the dorsal sepal, Up continuous with the column, produced 

 at the base into a long spur, blade 3-lobed, lateral lobes broad, 

 pectinate, midlobe entire, linear, column short, without a foot, 

 anther broad and large, cells slightly divergent, pollinia linear, 

 granular, caudicles short, glands naked, exserted. 



1, Platakthera Susanna, Lindl.; T. Coolie, Fl. of Bombay, II, 

 p. 712; Dalz. and Gibs., p. '369 ; Habenaria Susannee, Br. Fl. Br. 

 Ind., VI, p. 137. 



Tubers ovoid, globose, rarely lobed, 3 to 4 inches long. Stems 

 robust, 2 to 5 feet high, leafy up to the inflorescence. Leaves 

 ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, imbricate, 

 the upper sheathing, blades (becoming smaller upwards and 

 passing into leafy bracts), 2 to 6 inches long by 1 to 2 inches 

 broad. Bracts leafy, 2^ to 3 inches long. Flou^ers in 2 to 6 

 flowered racemes, 3 to 4 inches in diameter, white, fragrant, 

 subsessile, dorsal sepal, 1|- inch broad and long, broadly rhomboid 

 spreading, lateral sepals 1^ by | inch, obliquely subquadrately 

 oblong, obtuse, ascending, petals linear acute, 1 ^ inch long by ^ 

 inch broad, lip as long as the sepals, side lobes 1^ inch long, 

 truncate, the outer margins pectinate to the middle, onidlobe 1^ 

 by ^ inch, spnir 4 inches long or twice as long as the ovary. 



Plants start into growth at the onset of the rains and Jlotceis appear from 

 August to October. 



Distribution. — Abundant throughout the Konkan, North Kanara and 

 Western Ghats. Also in the hill tracts of Eastern Bengal and Assam, 

 Burma, Western Peninsula and the Malay Islands. 



Note.~In the Journal of this Society, Vol, X, p. 328, the late Mr. R. M. 

 Dixon has an interesting note on this plant, to the following effect : — The 



