348 
ORCHiDEiE. (S. Moore.) 
14. PHAJUS, Lour. 
Sepals and petals free, spreading, nearly equal, deciduous. Label- 
lum convolute round and free from the column or adnate to it belotv, 
entire or more or less 3-lobed, spurred or saccate at base, usually 
crested or lanceolate on the inner face. Column elongated, clavate ; 
anther 8-celled ; pollen-masses 8, all equal or four smaller, joined to a 
broad thick caudicle, but without any gland. — Terrestrial herbs, with 
stems usually swollen into pseudobulbs. Leaves large, membranous, 
many-nerved. Racemes erect, bearing numerous gaily coloured 
flowers. Distrib. A genus of several species, natives, for the most 
part, of the Indian and Malayan peninsulas and Archipelago ; two are 
found in Australia, and as many in Polynesia. 
Stem 4-angled. Labellmn adnate to the lower half of 
the column 1 . P. tetragonus. 
Stem subterete. Labellum free from the column .... 2. P. villosus. 
1. P. tetragonus, Rchb.f in Bonpl. iii. 221 ; Walp. Ann. vi. 458. 
Stem a foot or more high, erect, stout, jointed, sharply 4-angled, 
clothed below with several green scales. Leaves springing from the 
joints, broadly ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed towards the 
base, plicate, about 1 foot long and from 2 in. broad. Raceme axillary, 
stout, as long as the leaves ; peduncles short, ultimately becoming 
decurved and carrying up the longer sheathing bracts ; flowers about 
8 or 10 in a lax spike, 2 in. diam., red and yellow. Sepals spathulate- 
oblong, acute, 1 in. long, i in. broad. Petals a little longer and 
narrower. Labellum adnate to the lower half of the column, gibbous 
at base, with three central longitudinal raised lines within, obscurely 
3-lobed ; mid-lobe acuminate, reflexed. Column winged, dentate at the 
top, puberulous. Epidendrum tetragonum, Thouars, Orcli. Afr. it. 33, 
34. Limodorum tetragonum, Rich. Orch. Maur. 47, t. 7,f. 4. Brough- 
tonia tetragona, R. Br. ; Spreng. Syst. Veg. iii. 734. Pesomeria 
tetragona, Lindl. Bot. Mag. t. 4442. 
Mauritius, Plaines Wilhelms and round Grand Bassin, Bojer ! Ayres ! Sey- 
chelles, forests of Mahe, not common, Horne ! Endemic. 
2. P. villosus, Rchb.f. MSS. in Herb. Kew. Habit and stem as 
in P. tetragonus , but the latter is subterete and sometimes only 6 in. 
high. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, rather more than 1 foot long, narrowed 
towards the base ; bracts lanceolate, nearly 1 in. long ; flowers 1 in. 
diam. Sepals broadly lanceolate, f in. long. Petals a little shorter 
and narrower. Labellum free from the column, ovate-lanceolate, un- 
dulate, about f in. long, with a central longitudinal patch of coarse 
yellow hairs. Column | or | in. long, entire at the top ; anther-bed 
prolonged upwards behind. Bletia villosa, Rich. Orch. Maur. 42 ; Lindl. 
Gen. and’Sp. Orch. 123. Limodorum villosum, Thouars , Orch. Afr. t. 
32. 
Mauritius, Quartier Militaire and Grand Bassin, Bouton ! ; Quartier Militaire, 
Flacq, Plaines Wilhelms, and La Savanne, Bojer ! 
