THAL-I^NOPSIS. 



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appendages of the lip, and in having a curious proboscis-like rostellum ; 

 moreover its leaves are deciduous in its native home, and generally so 

 under cultivation in the glass houses of Europe. P. Esmercdda, which 

 would otherwise be included in Stauroglottis, is singular in having a 

 pair of slender linear appendages on the claw of the labellum. To meet 

 these obvious deviations from the other sectional types Mr. Rolfe has 

 proposed two new sections for their reception, Proboscidioides for P. Loicii, 

 in reference to the curious elephant's-trunk-like ajipendage of its column, 

 and Esmeralda for the species of that name.* 

 The generic name Phalaenopsis is derived from (paXaiva (phalaina), 

 " a moth/' and oxpig (opsis), " the appearance." It seems to have 

 been suggested to the Dutch botanist, Blume, by the fancied resemblance 

 of the flowers of Phalcenopsis amahilis (P. grandifora, LindL), the 

 species upon which the genus was founded, to some of the tropical 

 moths while on tlie wing, in the same manner that our native species 

 of Ophrys have received the popular names of Fly Orchis, Bee Orchis, 

 Spider Orchis, etc., from the supposed resemblance of their flowers 

 to those familiar insects. 



Oeographical Distrilmtion. — The geographical distribution of the 

 species of Phalaenopsis will be best understood from an inspection of 

 the accompanying map, on which are inscribed the names of all the 

 species whose habitats are known. By far the greater number of these 

 are insular, and the few that occur on the mainland of the Asiatic 

 continent are, with two exceptions, natives of the south-eastern pen- 

 insula, and are always found at no great distance from the sea shore. 

 All the species included in the section Euphal^nopsis are natives of the 

 Philippine Islands, except the type, Phalcenopsis amabilis, which has 

 a wide range in the Malay Archipelago. On the mainland one species 

 occurs in Cochin China, two in Moulmein, one, P. Gornu-cervi, in the 

 delta of the Irawaddy, and thence southwards as far as Java and other 

 islands in the Malay Archipelago, and one, P. Mannii, an outlying 

 member of the genus, is found in Assam, living under different 

 climatic conditions and environment from all its congeners. t With the 

 exception of the last-named species, it is thence seen that the genus 

 is spread over a region lying between the 15th parallel of north and 

 the 8th parallel of south latitude, and between the 95th and 12-5th 

 meridians of east longitude, and therefore within what is geographically 



* Gard. Chron. XXVI. (1886), p. 276. 



t A sub-variety of Phalcenopsis Parishii also occurs in Assam, but not in the same locality 

 as P. Mannii. 



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