DENDROBIUM. 3 



2. Rhizobium, including three Australian species, of which Dendro- 

 bium linguceforme, Bot. Mag. t. 5249, is the best known. 



3. Cadetia, including about twelve species, spread over the great 

 Asiatic Archipelago from Ceylon to Australia, of which the curious 

 Dendrobium cucumerinum, Bot. Mag. t. 4619, is one. 



4. Sarcopodium, a small group, including five or six Indian and 

 Malayan species, of which Dendrobium amplum, figured in Paxton's 

 Magazine of Botany, VII. p. 121, was one of the earliest; D. Coelo- 

 gyne, Gard. Chron. 1871, p. 136, and D. Treacherianum, Bot. Mag. 

 t. 6591, are the most recent in cultivation. 



6. Strongyle, a group of species, chiefly Malayan and Australian, 



distinguished by their branched stems and terete leaves. The typical 



species, Dendrobium teretifolium, Bot. Mag. t. 4711, is occasionally met 



with in cultivation. 



The leading features that distinguish these sections will be better 



comprehended by reference to the illustrations quoted than from any 



verbal description we can give, and which would lead us beyond 



the limits of the task we have assigned to ourselves. 



Of the two remaining sections, Stachyobium,* the fifth in order, is 

 rather an extensive one, and is divided by Bentham into several sub- 

 sections, of which only one contains species of any interest to the 

 amateur cultivator of orchids ; this is Speciosce. The included species 

 of this sub-section are chiefly distinguished by their rather long stems 

 furnished with leaves near their apex at the time of flowering, but a 

 few are leafless. The racemes are pseudo-terminal, elongated, many- 

 flowered, the flowers generally large and showy. Among the best 

 known Dendrobes in this sub-section are Dendrobium speciosum, the 

 typical species, D. bigibbum, D. superbiens, D. Fytchianum, D. muta- 

 bile, D. macroplujllum Veitchii, etc. 



By far the most important of the sectional divisions is the seventh 

 and last in Bentham's classification, and called Eudendrobium or the 

 true Dendrobes, all of which are chiefly distinguished by their un- 

 branched stems,! that are either leafy throughout or the leaves are 

 confined to the top. With the exception of those species included in 

 the section Stachyobium, all the cultivated Dendrobes may be said to 



habit of the included species which are stemless. Cadetia is probably from cadere, ' ' to fall, " in 

 reference to the leaves, that are usually short-lived in the species included in this section. Sar- 

 copodium is compounded of cra.p£, erap/coe, "flesh," and 7tovq, Trodog, "a foot," in reference 

 to the fleshy pseudo-bulbs or stems of the included species. Strongyle is from (rrpoyyvXoQ, 

 the Greek equivalent nearly for the Latin teres, ' ' round, " in reference to the terete leaves of 

 the included species. 



* From <Tra)(yg, " a spike " or raceme, in reference to the form of the inflorescence. 



t Caules indivisa apice vel undique foliati, Gen. Plant. III. p. 500. But this is not strictly 

 true ; many Dendrobes in this section emit lateral shoots from the uppermost joints of the 

 stems, which in time produce at their base a fascicle of aerial roots. When the shoots are 

 mature, they may be detached with their roots from the parent stems as independent plants. 



