SACCOLABIUM. 113 



calceolate Saccolabiums, and the handsomest known of all of them. 

 Botanically it ranch resembles a large state of Saccolabmm calceolare, 

 the type of the section, a species with small, inattractive flowers very 

 common in the tropical Himalaya ; that and 8. bellinum may be 

 regarded as the extremes of a series that are, in part, connected by 

 8. intermedium and 8. acutifolium* 



S, bigibbum. 



"Stem very short. Leaves few, linear-oblong, 3 — 4 inches long and 



1 inch broad, bifid at the apex. Eacemes shorter than the leaves, 



almost corymbiform, drooping, many flowered. Flowers pale yellow with 



faint red markings on the edge of the spur ; sepals and petals similar, 



spreading, spathulate, obtuse or sub-acute with a broad flat claw ; sac 



of lip large in proportion to the size of the flower, sub-hemispherical 



and laterally compressed ; blade broadly triangular with erose and 



ciliated margins." — Botanical Magazine. 



Saccolabium bigibbum, Rchb. in Bot. Mag. sub. t. 5767 (1869). Id. Otia Hamburg, 

 p. i3 (1878). Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. p. 61. 



Discovered by General Benson in Lower Burmah and introduced 



by us through him in 1868. It is a dwarf plant with light yellow 



flowers and is still occasionally imported with other Burmese 



orchids. 



S curvifolium. 



Stem short and stoutish, ligneous below, sheathed above by the 



imbricating bases of the crowded leaves. Leaves linear, 7 — 10 inches 



long, decurved, premorse and bi-dentate at the apex. Racemes erect, many 



flowered. Flowers crowded, about an inch across vertically, bright 



cinnabar-red ; sepals and petals similar, obovate-oblong, sub-acute ; lip 



linear-oblong, truncately emarginate, with a light orange keel and two 



tubercles at the base, where it is produced into a slender cylindric 



spur, at the entrance of which on each side is a short, roundish, erect 



lobe. Column short, cinnabar-red ; anther purple. 



Saccolabium curvifolium, Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 222 (1832). Ilhis. hort. XII. 

 t. 493 (1866). De Puydt, Les Orch. t. 38 (1880). Williams' Orch. Alb. III. t. 107. 

 Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. p. 65. S. rubrum, Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 222. 

 S. miniatum, Bot. Mag. t. 5326 (not Lindl.). 



Both the botanical and horticultural history of this plant is somewhat 



confused from its having been mixed up with that of 8accolahium 



miniatum, a species from Java with flowers of nearly the same 



colour and structure. It is certain, however, that 8. curvifolium 



was first made known to science by Dr. Wallich, who discovered 



* See Sir .1. D. Hooker's Flora of British India, VI. i). 61. 



