82 EPIDENDRUM. 



and two other allied forms were made sectional by Lindley, but are now 

 raised to generic rank by Bentham under the name of Diacrium, the 

 best known or type being that described in page 79. Instances of 

 addition occur in the Barkerias, but they are made sectional. 

 Keichenbach has indeed merged all the Cattleyas into Epidendrum, 

 but in this he stands alone.* 



Nearly one-half of the known species of Epidendrum have been 

 introduced into gardens in the course of the past hundred years, 

 but scarcely one-third of these or one-sixth of the whole are 

 considered to be of any horticultural merit ; the remainder consists 

 chiefly of species with inconspicuous flowers, often of dingy colours 

 and sometimes of such robust growth that they may be looked 

 upon as being among the coarsest weeds of the orchid world ; it 

 should be noted, however, that the flowers of many of them are 

 delightfully fragrant. The following diagnosis, abridged from the 

 Gtnera Plantarum, includes all the most important floral characteristics 

 of Epidendrum. 



The inflorescence is terminal with few exceptions. 

 The sepals are free, equal and spreading, but sometimes reflexed. 

 The petals are similar and sub-equal, often a little narrower than the sepals. 

 The li}:) has an erect claw more or less adnate to the column, appressed 

 to it only in a few species ; the blade is spreading and usually deeply lobed. 

 The column is often narrow and semi-terete, sometimes with two small 

 wings or auricles. 



The pollinia are four, ovate or flattened, two in each anther ceU, 

 where tliey are separated by a septum or partition. 



The capsule is ovoid or oblong with six prominent ribs, sometimes winged. 

 Nevertheless the essential character of Epidendrum and that by 

 which a flower is most easily recognised as belonging to the genus, 

 consists in the lip being appressed or more or less united to the 

 column. With the vegetative organs of Epidendrum the case is 

 not so simple, for throughout the genus, even as it now stands, 

 there exist remarkable differences in habit, and it is upon these 

 differences chiefly that the sectional divisions of the genus have 

 been founded ; the extent of the attachment of the lip to the 

 column being also regarded as an important character for the same 

 end. As the sectional divisions have a practical use in the opera- 

 tions of the cultivator, we here give the leading features of each 

 as enunciated by Bentham. 



* Walp. Ann. Bot. vol. YI. p. -311, et seq. and Xen. Orch. II. pp. 27—36. 



