

SUB-TRIBE SARCANTHE^. 



Stems not pseudo-bulbous [moiiopodial), creeping or ascending, bearing 

 adventitious roots often along their ichole length. Leaves disfichons, 

 coriaceous, sometimes fleshy. Inflorescence always lateral, axillary or 

 leaf-opposed ; flowers sometimes solitary, hit more often racemose or 

 paniculate.* 



STAUROPSIS. 



Rehb. in Hamb. Gartenz. 1860, p. 117. Benth. et Hook. Oeu. Plant. III. p. 572 (18S3). 

 Stauropsis was founded by Reiclieubacli on a ciu'ious Van da-like 

 orchid fi"om tbe Philippine Islands, unknown in cultivation, which 

 Lindley had previously referred to Blume's Trichoglottis, but which 

 does not conform to the essential characters of that genus. Subsequent 

 additions made chiefly by Bentham, have raised the number of species 

 now referred to Stauropsis to six or seven, most of those having 

 been originally described as Vandas, and two of them with AracJi- 

 nanthe Loivii, made sectional under that genus,t but the absence of 

 a spur to the labellum, and t!ie different form of the sepals and 

 petals, exclude them from Vanda. These same two species, wliicli are 

 those described infra, were referred by Eeichenbach to Gaudichaud's 

 Fieldia,J but as this name had been previously taken up by a genus 

 of Gesneriace-E II it could not be retained, and the two species were 

 accordingly merged by Bentham into Stauropsis. § 



The name Stauropsis is derived from aravpoq (stauros) ^'a cross," 

 and oi/'tg (opsis) ''the appearance," but its applicability to this cfenus 

 is obscure. The cultural treatment of the species here described is 

 the same as that for Aerides and Vanda, and is formulated under 

 the first-named genus. 



• These sub-tribal characters are derived exclusively from the vegetative organs of the 

 included species, by far the greater number of which present the formal aspect of an uprii^ht 

 stem with strap-shaped often curved leaves pointing in two directions only, so fauiiliar to 

 the cultivatore of Vaudas, Aerides, Saccolabiums, etc. 



t Liudley, Fol. Orjh. Vanda, p. 2. 



JWalper's Annates Systematicte VI. p. 870. 



II Gen. Plant. II. p. 1012. A raonotypic genus, native of Australia, discovered in the 

 early part of the present century, and dedicated to Mr. Bairon Field, Jad,<e of the 

 Supreme Court of New South Wales. The species is figured in B -t. Ma;,', t. 5(.i8.). 



§Journ. Linn. Soc. XVIII. p. 331. Mr. Bentham remarks, "I can discover no difference 

 between these species {Vanda Batemanii and V. gigantea) and Keiclienbach's genus 

 Stauropsis, and have therefore adopted the latter name for the whole group." 



B 



