PLATYCLINIS. 79 



SUB-TRIBE LI PARIES. 



Stems ojten pseudo-bulbous, one- or many-leaved, racemes terminal. 

 Column sessile, i.e., not produced into a foot ; poUinia usually four, 

 in two j^ci'ifs, inappendiculate. 



PLATYCLINIS. 



Benth. in Jour, of Linn. Soc. XVIII. p. 295 (1881). Benth. et Hook. Gen. Plant. III. p. 

 496 (1883). 



The only genus in this sub-tribe of which the included species are 

 of any horticultural interest, is Platyclinis, established by Mr. Bentham 

 on Blume's second section of Dendrochilum. Blume^s typical Den- 

 drochilum is a Java plant, possessing more of the characters of the 

 DENDROBIE.E than of the Liparie.e, but with that he joined others 

 having the characters of the last-named sub-tribe ;* it is these that 

 Mr. Bentham has separated from Dendrochilum, to which must now 

 be added other species since discovered, the typical species with two 

 or three others being retained under the original generic name. 

 Thus circumscribed, Platyclinis includes about ten species, nearly all 

 natives of Java and the Philippine Islands, those in cultivation being 

 all from the last-naTiied group. f 



The essential characters of the genus may be thus briefly 

 summarised : — 



Epiphytal herbf; with S7iiall pseudo-bulbs that are covered from below 

 with scarious slieaths, and liear at their apex a single narrow leaf con- 

 tracted to a short foot-stalk. Flowers small and numerous, in terminal 

 pendulous racemes and usually distichous and alternate along the rachis. 

 Column short, erect, and having two lateral branches or arms. 

 The generic name is derived from ttAotuc (platus), " broad,^' and 

 kXii'iq (klinis), "a small bed." 



Cultural Note. — The plants described below, being natives of a region 

 lying within and near the equatorial zone, J require the temperature of 



* Journal of Linn. Soc. loc. cit. supra. 



t M. Porte, who visited the Philippine Islands a few years after our own countr3'nian, 

 Cuming, had made known the great orchid wealth of those islands, observed of Platyclinis 

 (Dendrochilum), " Les Dendrochilum tres-nombreux a une altitude de 500 a 1,000 metres ne se 

 rencontrent jamais dans les Philippines a une altitude moindre, attaches aux troncs des arbres 

 i\ deux ou quatres metres au-dessus du sol. Les forets dans lesquelles on les trouve sont si 

 humides que, pendant neuf niois de I'annee, les sangsues y vivent comme si elles etaient 

 terrestres." — Du Buysson, L'Orckidophile, p. 325. 



t For climate of this zone see notes under Dendrobium, page 9. 



