182 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [JUNE, 1922+ 
AERIDES. 
HE essential characters of Aérides are briefly: —The sepals are spread- 
C ing, the lateral two broader than the upper one, and adnate at their 
base to the foot of the column. The petals are similar to the upper sepal, 
rarely different. The labellum is affixed to the foot of the column, is three- 
lobed, and produced into a spur that is usually turned upwards on the back. 
of the labellum. The column is short and thickish, produced more or less. 
at its base into a foot ; the anther is beaked. 
In a wild state the Aérides affix themselves to the trunks and branches: 
of living trees, rarely to dead and prostrate ones. The young plants are 
usually erect or ascending, and emit from their base numerous cord-like: 
roots that creep over the bark or along the cracks and crevices of it, clinging. 
to the tree with extraordinary tenacity, and holding the plants so firmly as 
to enable them to resist any of the ordinary force of Nature that would 
affect their stability or cause their displacement. As the stems continue to 
lengthen, adventitious roots are constantly produced from the preceding 
year’s growth, which attain a great length, frequently branch, and become 
pendent by their own weight. These roots thence form in time a tangled, 
cord-like mass that cannot be aptly compared with any phase of vegetation 
seen in our climate. The annual lengthening of the stem is well marked 
by the foliage; which in a wild state is of biennial duration; the roots, too, 
that are farthest removed from the foliage gradually cease to perform their 
functions and die off. The inflorescence is produced from the axils of the 
leaves of the preceding year, which begin to wither in the short, dry season 
that ensues after the growth of the current year is completed. As the stem 
of an Aérides lengthens by successive yearly growths it gradually deviates 
from its ascending position, first becoming more inclined, then taking 4. 
horizontal direction, and finally by its own weight and the weight of its 
appendages it is brought into almost an inverted, or, if near enough to the 
ground, a prostrate position, when its further lengthening is checked or even 
arrested by the obstacles it encounters. Nevertheless, the stems of Aérides: 
are virtually interminate, they would continue to lengthen indefinitely if no 
physical obstacles or checks intervened. Stems have been observed from 
‘ feet long, but long before that length has been attained young shoots 
spring from the base of the parent stem, which in time become independent 
plants ; the stem also produces lateral shoots when a fracture has occurred, 
or when growth at the apex has been arrested by some physical cause. AS 
the leaves wither the stem becomes lignified, sapless, and gradually loses: 
all signs of life beyond a certain distance below the foliage; probably the 
life of no part of the stem under the most favourable circumstances exceeds 
five years.—Veitch’s Manual of Orchidaceous Plants. 
