ORCHIACEIE, the Orchidacem of Limn., the Orchis tribe of plants, comprising 7 genera and about 2000 species. Of these, there are about 1700 species in British India in the several divi sions, viz. : Arethusien, genera anthogonium, pogonia, and vanilla ; 218 species.
Cypripeden, genus cypripedium • 23 species.
Emdendreaa, genera arundina, bletia, cattleya, epiden drum, phaius, spathoglottis ; 153 species.
Malaxiere, genera aporum, bolbophyllum, coelogyne, oirrhopetalum, dendrobium, eria, liparis, oberonia, octomeria, otochilus, pholidota, pleurophallis, stelis, trias, and Wallichiana ; about 390 species.
Neottiem, genera anoectochilus, goodyera, and zeuxina ; total, 270 species.
Ophryeze, genera habenaria, peristylus, platanthera, and satyrium; total, 449 species.
Vanden, genera acanthophippium, acropera, aerides, bifrenaria, batemamia, brassie, camarotis, cata - setum, cryptochilus, culanthe, cymbidium, cyrto pera, cyrtopodium, dicrypta, eulophia, geodorum, gongora, grammatophyllum, maxillaria, micro pera, phalEenopsis, renanthera, sacco labium, sarcanthus, Stanhopea, vanda; total, 487 species.
Many of the Orchiacem have very beautiful flowers, and salep, which consists of bassorin, is obtained from a species of Eulophia. Orchid aceous plants are rare throughout the plains of Northern India, and in the Panjab. Only the ubiquitous Zeuxina sulcata occurs generally, while Eulophia is found locally, and only one other was found in the Trans-Indus hills to 8000 feet. Bol bophyllum, species B. auricomum, Careyanum, flexuosum, fuscescens, Jenkinsonii, serpens, and sunipia, occur in Nepal, the Khassya Hills, Burma, and Tenasserim. The most highly valued of the orchid order among the Burmese and Karens, is the sweet-scented bolbophyllum, which Karen youths wear in the lobes of the ear, and maidens in their hair. It abounds in almost every part of the jungles, throwing down delicate straw-coloured racemes over the rough grey bark of old lager strcemia. Bolbophyllum Careyanum is a common orchid in the vicinity of Moulmein, easily recog nised by a long leaf at the apex of a false bulb, and by its small purplish flower. Many species of dendrobium occur in South-Eastern Asia and Australia. Dr. Wight in his Icones gives thirteen, Dr. Voigt names twenty-five, species of Bolpo phyllum, and on the Tenasserim coast there are fifteen or more, viz. :— album. Cambridgeanum. macrostachyum.
alpestre. candidum. Paxtonii.
aureum. calceolus. pendulum.
barbatulum. co3rulescens. pierardi.
denudans. clavatum. pulchellurn.
filiforme. crumenatum. pumilum.
graminifolium. ebrysanthum. purpureum.
heterocarpum. densiflorum. ramosissimum.
Heyneanurn. fiavum. secundum.
humilis. formosum. stuposum.
Jerdonianum. Gibsonii. sulcatum.
aggregatum. Jenkinsii. teretifolium.
bicameratum. longicornu.
On the Tenasserim coast is a dendrobium, the flowers of which are white, with a yellow lip, three or four inches in diameter, and exquisitely fragrant. The plant blossoms in March, and its flowers may be seen whitening under the emerald foliage of the groves for nearly six months of the year to the close of October. The Burmese call it the silver flower. Wight gives figures of Epipactis carinata and Dalhousim macrostachya. Erin, obesa is one of the most abundant of Tenasserim epiphytes, but the flowers are small, and have little to recommend them. Wight gives figures of Eria epiphytes, pauciflora, poly stachya, pubescens, and reticosa.
The genera Eulophia, Orchis, Satyrium are believed to produce the salep of commerce, a substance largely used as a restorative and as a dietetic. Orchis mascula, called early orchis, male orchis, and male fool's stones, grows plentifully throughout Europe, Northern Africa, Persia, and the temperate region of High Asia. In Persia the roots are washed and thrown into boiling water to remove the outer skin ; they are then dried, strung on cords, and hung in the sun or in ovens until perfectly free from moisture. The dried bulbs, of the size of a cherry stone to that of an olive, are slightly transparent and of a horny colour ; they are pounded, being soaked in cold water until they become soft, and then rapidly dried, and the powder is dissolved like other fecula, in water, milk, or broth, requiring sixty parts of liquid to one of fecula. It may be used for the same purposes as sago, tapioca, and arrow-root, and when good is an excellent diet article for convalescents, two drachms being suffi cient for a meal for an invalid. O. morio of Great Britain, the meadow orchis, or female fool's stones, and the 0. militaris, or man orehis, also of Britain, all furnish •lio salep tubers. Orchis bitlora, 0. commelinrefolia, 0. latifolia, and 0. papilionacea are also named. Dr. Hoyle was of opine!' that the genus Eulophia furnished the salep of High ,Asia, Kashmir, and Afghanistan, the Himalaya, the Neilgherries, and Ceylon ; and Dr. Bellew found an orchis at Ilazara, four marches west of Kurram fort, at a height of 1000 feet, some of the tubers being almost as large as a walnut. Dr. Hoyle names Eulophia vem of the Himalaya, near the Jhelum, and E. campestris near the Kheree pass, as yielding salep. There are three kinds of salep known in the bazars of N.W. India, viz. Salep misri or Egyptian salep, the genuine salep of Kashmir ; salep Kai or salep Kabuli, the mountain or Kabul salep and Simla salep, and salep Hindustani, which is the worst kind.—Mason ; • Eng. Cyc. ; • W. Icones ; Voigt ; Roxb. ; Hooker, ii. p. 281.