112 
EPIDENDRUM? potysBuLson. 
Bulb-bearing Epidendrum. 
GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA.—Nat. Orv. ORCHIDE. 
Gen. Cuar.—Columna cum ungue labelli longitudinaliter connata in tubum 
-(quandoque decurrentem ovarium). Masse pollinis quatuor, parallele, 
septis completis persistentibus distinctz, basi filo granulato elastico auc- 
tee.—Br. ; 
Epidendrum polybulbwm ; caule repente bulbifero, bulbis diphyllis uni- 
floris, flore pedunculato, lamina labelli cordata —Sw. 
E. polybulbon, Sw. Fi. Ind. Occ. p. 1491. 
Stem parasitic, long, filiform, creeping, jointed, branched, throwing out long, 
_ white, simple fibres from the joints. Joints covered with brown, sheath- 
ing scales. At every third joint there arises, constantly according to 
Swartz, an oblong, compressed, green, fleshy bulb, tapering at the base 
into a sort of footstalk, and partly clothed with membranaceous scales, | 
terminating above in two oblong, green, somewhat succulent, emarginate 
leaves; having a central rib, which is prominent on the under side. 
Peduncle solitary from between the leaves, and scarcely longer than they are, 
erect, inclined at the extremity, jointed and clothed with sheathing scales, 
terminated by a single flower. 
Calyx erecto-patent, of five linear, lanceolate, pale yellow-green leaflets, the 
three outermost of these with three faint reddish lines, the two innermost 
rather the narrowest, and with only one red line. | 
Labellum scarcely larger than the petals, white, nearly plane, orbiculato-cor- 
date, waved at the margin, emarginate at the extremity, the base ungui~ 
culate, having the lower part of the claw united with the base of the co- 
lumn, and decurrent for a little - way with the base of the germen. Co- 
lumn short, semicylindrical, with two teeth-like processes at the margin, 
and two horn-like acuminated processes at the extremity, deep purple, 
its margins white. Anther terminal between the horns, operculate, purple, 
2-celled, cells with a partition. Each cell contains two obovato-hemi- 
spherical compressed pollen-masses, each pair of which terminates in a 
tail-like appendage, which is applied to the edge the masses (in the 
same mode as the radicle of the embryos of many*cruciform plants is ap- 
plied to the edge of the cotyledons), with a gland at the extremity. 
VOL. II. 
i Ni a i a lil 
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