Notes on Asiatic Orchids: V

Abstract

Examination of material in spirit, however, shows that the viscidia are quite naked, there being no bursicles as invariably in the genus Orchis, while the viscidia themselves are linear and placed in a parallel position as in Gymnadenia. Vermeulen also could find no bursicles when examining dried material in the Kew Herbarium. It seems, therefore, that the species is correctly placed in the genus Gymnadenia, not in Orchis, and this is borne out by the general structure of the flower. So far as I can see from the material available the tubers are elongate, cylindrical or ovoid and possibly shortly lobed ; I have not seen any that are spherical, as illustrated and described by Reichenbach. Tang and Wang state that the type specimen of G. graminifolia in the Reichenbach Herbarium lacks any tubers so it is not clear from what source Reichenbach obtained his information. EPIGENEIUM Gagnep. In 1853 Lindley (Lindl. & Paxt. Fl. Garden, 1, 136, 155) proposed the name Sarcopodium for a group of orchids. Some of these are now by common consent included in the genus Bulbophyllum, while the remainder have been treated by many authors as a section of Dendrobium. Rolfe and Kraenzlin, however, both considered that this latter part, which contained Lindley's type species (S. amplum (Lindl.) Lindl.) should be maintained as a genus distinct from Dendrobium, a view with which the present writer concurs. In a recent paper in Lloydia (19, 94-98 : 1956) A. D. Hawkes pointed out that the name Sarcopodium Lindl. is a later homonym of Sarcopodium Ehrenb. ex Schlechtend., a genus of Fungi. He therefore proposed the new name Katherinea for the orchid genus, as emended by Kraenzlin and Rolfe, which he also maintained as distinct from Dendrobium, and he made a number of new combinations for the various species which he recognised.