14 PHALAX0P8IS. 



The column is semi-terete, straight or slightly curved, and produced at 

 the base into a short foot. 



The pollinia are sub-globose, waxy, usually of a deep orange-red, and 

 attached to the gland by a long slender caudicle. 



The capsule is sub-cylindric, almost fusiform, with six furrows 



in EuPHAL.ENOPSis ; angulate with the perianth segments persistent in 



Stauroglottis. 



In their vegetation the Phalaenopses are dwarf epiphytal herbs that 



attach themselves to the stems and branches of large trees, generally 



in shade, always in proximity to water, whether as running streams, 



the deltas of rivers, or close to the sea-shore. A few species, as 



Phalcenopsis Lowii, P. Parishii, and P. Esmeralda, are deciduous in 



their native home, and grow on the branches of small bushes ami 



even on limestone rocks. 



The ste77is are very short and are sheathed by the bases of the leaves. 

 From their base are produced numerous flexuose, aerial roots, that in 

 most of the species of Phalsenopsis proper are compressed, rugose, of a 

 dull brown or greyish hue, and cling with extraordinary tenacity to the 

 surfaces over which they creep. In .other species the roots are cylindric, 

 smooth, somewhat slender, at first green, changing with age to a greyish 

 white ; roots with characters intermediate between these are. also of 

 frequent occurrence. 



The leaves, always few in number, are distichously arranged as in the 

 allied genera, but the arrangement is often more or less apparently 

 distorted, owing to the shortness of the stems on which they are 

 close- set. They are usually of ovate, oblong, or obovate-oblong form, 

 often very large, leathery in texture, and of a glossy green, but in a 

 few species mottled with grey. 



The peduncles are either simple and few flowered, or branched and 

 many flowered, in the latter case sometimes attaining a considerable 

 size ; the bracts are usually small, ovate, and appressed to the base of 

 the ovary. 



A morphological peculiarity that occurs in the roots and peduncles 

 of Phalcenopsis has here to be noticed. Both organs are proliferous, 

 that is to say, adventitious buds are produced by them, which, under 

 favourable circumstances, ultimately develop into young plants that may 

 be detached from their jiarent ; the rate of development is, however, 

 often extremely slow. Proliferous roots have been observed on 

 Phalcenopsis Stuartiana, P. Scliilleriana, and P. deliciosa ; of the 

 observed instances, the proliferation has occurred most frequently in 

 the first named species, of which a specimen with a miniature plant 

 on one of its roots, and having two tiny leaves, was brought under 

 the notice of the Orchid Conference at South Kensington, in May, 

 1885 ; a similar growth has been observed on the roots of P, 



