AERIDES. 68 



The species of Aerides admit of a division into two very distinct 

 sections according to their vegetation and habit^ viz.^ Planifoli.t:, 

 in which the leaves are flat, leathery, and spreading, and Teretifolt.e, 

 in which the leaves are cylindric, fleshy, and grooved in front. Of 

 the last-named section two species only, Aerides mitratum and A. 

 Vamlavum, are known to us to be in cultivation. All the other 

 cultivated forms belong to the flat-leaved section, throughout which 

 a general uniformity of habit prevails, so that the following short 

 diagnosis of the vegetative organs will serve for all : — 



The stems are cyHndric, deviating but little in thickness from that 

 of a man's little finger, ligneous below, leafy upwards, emitting long, 

 cord-like, often branched, aerial roots. 



The leaves are strap-shaped, keeled beneath, embracing the stem at 

 their base, obtuse or obliquely two-lobed at their apex, very leathery 

 in texture. 



The inflorescence is lateral, either simple or branched, decurved and 

 usually longer than the leaves; very viscid in the odoratum group 

 from a honeyed secretion along the rachis and from the base and foot 

 of the column, 



The flotvers are often crowded and inverted, that is, the labellum is 

 uppermost,* the pedicels are sheathed by a small scale-like bract at 

 the base. 



The genus was founded by the Portuguese missionary and 

 botanist, Loureiro, upon Aerides odoratum, which he detected in Cochin- 

 China some time prior to 1790, the year in which he published his 

 Flora cochinchinensis. His selection of the name is explained by the 

 following quaint extract from that work^ which would be spoiled 

 by translating : — " Mirabilis hujus plantse proprietas est, quod ex 

 sylvis domum delata et in aere libero suspensa, absque ullo pabulo 

 vegetabili, terreo vel aqueo, in multos annos duret, crescat, floreat et 

 germinet. Vix crederem nisi diuturna experientia comprobassem." 

 The name Aerides is a grammatical form called a patronymic, and 

 means literally " children of the air."t 



Geographical distrihution. — The Aerides are spread generally over 

 the Indo- Malayan region, excluding the arid tracts in the north-west 

 of Hindostan and the dry central plateau of the Deccan^ where the 



* But owing to the pendulous habit of tlie inflorescence the flowers appear to the spectator 

 in their natural position. '■ 



t The name itself is unknown in classic Greek, but it is correctly formed from a»p aepoc 

 '' the air," hence the proper pronunciation is a-er-i'-des. 



