KHYNCHOSTYLIS. 55 



the explorer to linger in the locality, even at the risk of subsequent attacks 

 of jungle fever. Curiously enough the plants are never found in groups, 

 but singly, Avith long distances between the individual plants. They come 

 into flower during September and October, or immediately after the south- 

 west monsoon rains cease, and from that date till the first spring showers 

 fall in March or April, these epiphytes enjoy complete rest They are 

 throughout nearly the whole of this period of rest more or less protected 

 from the east winds that prevail for so many months, and they are under 

 the influence of dense fogs during the night and early morning. During 

 the prevalence of the south-west monsoon, which is their growing 

 season, the temperature rarely falls below 21° C. (70" F.), that is, when the 

 sky is cloudy and the rain is pouring in torrents, perhaps for three and four 

 weeks at a time. From the end of October till the end of April, the season 

 of rest, the thermometer frequently falls in the night and early morning to 

 9° C. (48" F.), so that the range of temperature under which they live in 

 southern India is considerable." 



The form now recognised as the type was detected by Dr. Blume 

 during a journey through Java in 1823 — 4, a short time previous to 

 the publication of his '^ Contributions " (Bijdragen) to the flora of 

 that island, in which it was first described under the now accepted 

 name of Bhynchosti/lis retusa. It was introduced from Java by 

 Messrs. Loddiges in 1838 — 9, and was figured and described in 

 Dr. Lindley's Sertum Orchidaceum, under the name of Saccolahium 

 Blumei, on the occasion of its first flowering in this country. It 

 has since been gathered in Lower Burmah, and in other localities 

 in the eastern peninsula. Long, however, before the publication of 

 Blume's Bijdragen specimens of the Indian form known in gardens 

 as Saccolahium guttatum had been transmitted to Europe, through 

 which the plant became known to Linnaeus, who included it in his 

 genus Epidendrum, as he did all the epiphytal orchids known to 

 him. The first notice of it as a horticultural plant occurs in the 

 Botanical Register for 1831, where it is figured under the name of 

 Sarcantlius guttatus. In the letter-press accompanying the plate 

 Dr. Lindley states that '^he saw in 1820, in Sir Joseph Banks^ 

 library, a specimen in full flower that had been sent from the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew," and this was probably the first time of its flowering in 

 England. Ten years later a plant was presented to the Horticultural 

 Society of London by the East India Company through Dr. Wallich, 

 which flowered at Chiswick in 1831. From that time to the present 

 the species has been uninterruptedly represented in British orchid 

 collections. 



