288 Lijidler/s Sertum Orchidaceum. 



Certochilum stellatum, t. 7. Nearly related to C. flavescens 

 BoL Reg., t. 1627. 



" This magnificent species is dispersed through the districts of Macahe and 

 Bananal. It flowers in September, and remains in that state till the end of 

 January. It diffuses but a weak perfume; but the beautiful spikes, which, seen 

 at a distance, make it resemble a mass of verdure, strewed with large stars, 

 render it a most remarkable object." 



Oberon2« rufilabris LmdL, t. 8. A, 

 O. Griffithmwa Lindl., t. 8. B. 



" Although it is not intended in this work to make a practice of figuring 

 minute plants, which are interesting only for their curious structure, yet the 

 extremely remarkable forms of some species render them even more worthy of 

 illustration than the more striking plants, for which these plates are chiefly 

 destined. Such a case is the present, where a page is occupied by three mi- 

 croscopic species of Orchidacese, each of which is still more strangely fashioned 

 than the other, and all so different from other plants, that one might almost 

 doubt their belonging to the vegetable world. If the Brahmins had been 

 botanists, one might have fancied they took their doctrine of metempsychosis 

 from these productions ; in the genera Oberonz'a and Drymoda, Pythagoras 

 would have found a living evidence of animals transmuted into plants. The 

 genus Ober6nz« consists principally of small fleshy-leaved epiphytes, inhabiting 

 the branches of trees in the woods of India, and having the most tiny of 

 flowers. Fourteen species have been described, of which one only, and that 

 the least interesting (O. zridifolia) has been seen alive in Europe. The re- 

 semblances to insects and other animal forms, which have been perceived in the 

 orchidaceous plants of Europe, and which have given rise to such names as 

 Fly Orchis, Bee Orchis, Man Orchis, Butterfly Orchis, and Lizard Orchis, 

 may be traced so plainly in the genus Oberonia, in every species, that it alone 

 would furnish a magazine of new ideas for the grotesque pencil of a German 

 admirer of the wild and preternatural. The two species now figured were 

 discovered in the Burmese empire by Mr. Griffith, a botanist of great repu- 

 tation, from whose indefatigable zeal and exertions the greatest discoveries 

 may be expected in the flora of the British possessions in India. The plates 

 have been prepared from sketches made by Mr. Griffith himself, on the spot, 

 and since compared with dried specimens collected at the same time. 



" Oberonz'a rufilabris is an almost stemless plant, hanging down from the 

 branches on which it grows, and to which it clings by its slender thread-like 

 roots." The habit of O. Gv'i^thidna is very much that of the last species. 



Drymoda picta, Lindl. t. 8. C. A most curious plant, so en- 

 tirely different from any other Orchidacese, that Dr. Lindley is 

 *' unable even to name a genus with which it may be compared." 

 Mr. Griffith, who discovered the plant in the Burmese empire, 

 in 1835, considers its place in the order to be on the confines of 

 Epidendreae and Vandece. {Sert. Orch., t. 8.) 



Calanthe hrevicornu Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 251. A 

 native of Nepal, where it was found by Dr. WalHch, in 1821. 

 Calanthe is an extensive Indian genus, of which there are as yet 

 scarcely more than two species in British gardens. There are 

 said to be two other species in Flanders and Holland, which will 

 doubtless soon find their way to this country ; and there are 

 a great many indigenous to Java, to repay the exertions of future 

 collectors, (Sert. Orch.^ t. 9.) 



