May, rgto.]) THE ORCHID REVIEW. 131 
of the column is extended, into.a foot, which is often much elongated, and to 
which the lateral sepals are often united at the base, forming a mentum: 
The lip is attached to the foot of the column, usually fixed in Dendrobium, 
but very delicately articulated and mobile in most of the other genera. 
Though varying in habit, it is generally easily recognised by the characters 
pointed out. The primary stem or rhizome may be very short, or elongated 
and creeping, and the secondary stems elongated and slender, with numerous 
distichous leaves, or variously thickened into pseudobulbs, sometimes very 
short, and bearing one, two, or very few leaves. We may now mention a 
few of the principal genera. 
Dendrobium, as now defined, is a very large and polymorphic genus, 
containing probably over 500 species, and ranging from North India and 
China through the Malayan Archipelago to Australia and Polynesia. The 
rhizomes are often short, giving rise to numerous elongated and slender or 
variously thickened stems, and bearing numerous distichous leaves, but 
occasionally the rhizomes are more elongated and creeping, and the pseudo- 
bulbs shorter and stouter, and bearing two or three apical leaves, sometimes 
only a single leaf. The leaves are sometimes equitant, as in the Aporum 
section, and sometimes terete and even much thickened and fleshy, as in the 
Australian D. linguiforme and D. cucumerinum. The inflorescence is 
usually axillary, but sometimes terminal, and the flowers vary enormously 
in size, shape and colour, many of the species being purple, white, greenish 
or yellow, and sometimes variously marked. The foot of the column is 
always more or less developed, and the lateral sepals are united to it, 
forming a variously-shaped mentum, often very long and spur-like in the 
section Pedilonum. The lip is generally firmly fixed, but occasionally 
mobile, as in D. herbaceum and a few others.. Dendrobium is one of the 
most popular of garden genera, and a large number of species are well 
known in cultivation, but probably a greater number are either not known 
or very rarely seen in gardens. The flowers of the section Desmotrichum 
anda few others only last a single day. Among remarkable features seen 
in cultivated species of the genus may be mentioned the remarkably 
fringed lip of D. Bryerianum, the similar petals of D. Harveyanum, and the 
mossy pedicels of D. macrophyllum. 
Bulbophyllum may be regarded as the type of a group of allied genera 
which approach very near to Dendrobium, though generally differing in 
habit and in having an articulated, mobile lip. The difference is not quite 
absolute, because a few Dendrobiums have a distinctly mobile lip, and a few 
others closely resemble Bulbophyllum in habit. In Bulbophyllum the 
pseudobulbs are borne upon a short or elongated rhizome, and are ovate, 
angled or somewhat elongated, with one or two leaves at the apex, but 
sometimes the pseudobulb is not developed, and the leaves appear to come 
