ERIA

Lindl.

Epiphytes of various habit. Flowers never large or bright –coloured. Sepals free (very rarely connate) , adnate to the elongate foot of the column , and with it forming a short or long and spur-like or saccate mentum (mentum 0 in Eria leiophylla ) . Lip sessile on the foot of the column and incumbent (mobile in Eria pulchella and barbata). Anther imperfectly 4- or 8-celled ; pollinia normally 8, pyriformor broadly obovoid , attached in fours by narrow bases to a viscus .-Species upwards of 100, Tropical Asiatic .

Perhaps the most polymorphous genus of Orchids , and very difficult of division nto definable groups. Though never confounded with Dendrobium , the only available distinctive character between these is the oblong pollinia of the latter genus, and more or less pyriform of Eria . In the following descriptions of the species , I have omitted many characters of the column, anthers , and pollen that are doubtless of first-rate importance , but cannot be sufficiently well detected or examined in dried specimens as to afford safe sectional characters. I am unable to retain as sections Urostachya and Cylindrolobus . The monotypic sections Xiphostylis , Blume ) , should form a section ( or genus) , if the lip is , as Blume says , mobile; perhaps together with Eria barbata , which , according to Griffith, has a tremulous lip . The thickened nerves , calli , & C., of the lip in many species are very variable in development ; and considerable allowance must be mad for faulty characters due to the unsatisfactory condition of complicated organs that have been dried for years , and restored by maceration or boiling .

KEY TO THE SECTIONS.

I. PORPAX, Lindl .(Gen.).

Small species . Pseudobulbs depressed , clothed with reticulated sheaths , 2-leaved . Leaves sessile , membranous , caducous . Flowers 1-3 , subsessile on the top of the pseudobulb; sepals free or connate ; column very short .-Spcies 1-5 .

II. CONCHIDIUM

Griff.(Gen.).Small species . Pseudobulbs naked or sheathed, and leaves as in Porpax . Flowers solitary or few, on a slender scape from the top of the pseudobulb.-Sp. 6-9.

III. . BRYOBIUM Lindl. (Gen.)

Small species . Pseudobulbs ovoid or depressed, 2-3 leaved. Leaves membranous . Scape from between the leaves , filiform .Flowers racemose , small , glabrous .-Sp. 10-15.

IV. ERIURA , Lindl.

Stem tall (rarely short) , terete , leafy. Leaves distichous , long, narrow.Flowers minute , woolly , in subterminal spikes , racemes or fascicles ; lateral sepals short , broad; column very short .-Sp. 16-20.

V. MYCARANTHES , Blume (Gen.).

Pseudobulbs on a creeping rhizome , elongate , cylindric or clavate ,naked. Leaves 2-3 , terminal , narrow . Flowers minute , woolly , in second spikes from the side of the pseudobulb or from between the leaves.-Sp. 21, 22.

VI. HYMENERIA , Lindl. ( and UROSTACHYA , Lindl.)

. Pseudobulbs short or long , 1- nodded, often forming a fleshy stem, or crowded on the creeping rhizome . Flowers small or mentum-sized , glabrous or pubescent , rarely woolly , in lateral or subterminal spikes or racemes.

Flowers small or minute , in dense spikes , racemes or clusters .-Sp. 23-27.

Flowers small or medium sized , in lax spikes or racemes.-Sp. 28-51.

Flowers medium –sized , 1-3 , long –pedicelled , on a short subterminal scape with as many large spreading white or coloured bracts. Stem erect, elongate , usually fleshy , cylindric . (Cylindrolobus , Blume , Gen.)

VII. DENDROLIBION , Lindl.

Stems or pseudobulbs very various . Leaves one or few , terminal or cubterminal on the pseudobulbs, or on a creeping rhizome . Flowers in terminal or subterminal spikes or racemes , or subsolitary on the rhizome , woolly or densely tomentose .

Pseudobulbs usually large. Inflorescence white-woolly .-Sp. 61-68.
Pseudobulbs large . Inflorescence brown-tomentose .-Sp.69-70.
Pseudobulbs very small or 0 .-Sp. 71-76.

VIII. BAMBUSIFOLIA

Hook .f. Stem usually long , terete , leafy . Leaves distichous, elliptic or lanceolate , glabrous . Flowers in leaf-opposed racemes , glabrous or tomentose .-Sp. 77-79.

IX. TRICHOTOSIA , Blume (Gen.)

Stems usually long, terete , leafy (short and creeping in E. sedifolia ), often hirsute. Leaves narrow , distichous . Flowers in leaf-opposed clusters, spike or racemes , more or less hirsute ; lip usually very narrow and stiff; mentum short.-Sp. 80-90.

X. . XIPHOSIUM.

Pseudobulb uninodal , 1-leaved .scape from the base of the pseudobulb , clothed below with equitant sheaths , the uppermost ensiform . Flowers minute , in dense rusty-tomentose spikes ; sepals very short ; mentum long , spurlike .-Sp. 92.

XI. ACRIDOSTACHYA

Hook.f. Pseudobulb very short , 1- leaved, sheathed as in Xiphosium . Scape from the base of the pseudobulb, stout , erect. Flowers rather large; sepals keeled ; ovary and pedicel tripterous .-Sp. 91.

XII. DILOCHIOPSIS

Hook .f. Stems tufted , tall ,erect , leafy. Leaves distichou s, ensiform . Flowers in a short terminal branched panicle with large deciduous rigid bracts .-Sp. 93.

XIII. PELLAIANTHUS

Hook .f. Stems terete , short , erect from a creeping rhizome . Leaves 2 , terminal . Spike short , lateral ; perianth very thick ; column with a very short foot or 0.-Sp. 94.