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Polystachya (From poly many and stachys)

(from poly, many, and stachys, a spike; alluding to the inflorescence of some of the species). SYNS. Encyclia, Epiphora. ORD. Orchideae. A genus comprising about forty species of stove, epiphytal orchids, mostly tropical and South African, a few being found in India, Malaya, and tropical America. Flowers usually small; sepals connivent or almost spreading, the dorsal one free, the lateral ones sometimes much broader, adnate to the foot of the column; petals similar to the dorsal sepal, or narrower; lateral lobes of lip somewhat prominent, erect, the middle one spreading or recurved, and undivided; column sometimes very short; pollen masses, four; racemes many, short, forming a loose, narrow panicle, or solitary and simple, on a leafy stem; peduncle terminal. Leaves few, distichous, oblong or narrow, base contracted into a sheath. The species are rather interesting plants. Those best known to cultivation are described below; they require culture similar to Burlingtonia (which see).

P. bracteosa (bracted). fl. yellow; sepals brown at base; lip broadly oblong, revolute, the lateral lobes brown within; bracts lanceolate, acuminate, concave, at length leafy; raceme nodding, pubescent. l. solitary, petiolate, oblong-ovate, acute. Pseudo-bulbs almost round, compressed, aggregate. Sierra Leone, 1838. (B. M. 4161.) P. galeata (helmet-shaped). fl., perigone green, spotted with red; sepals mucronate; petals minute, oblong-spathulate; lip greenish-white, fleshy, trilobed, the middle lobe cordate, acute; peduncles terminal, generally one-flowered. l. linear-oblong, fleshy. Pseudo-bulbs small, one-leaved. Sierra Leone, 1837. (B. M. 3707, under name of P. grandiflora.) P. hypocrita (hypocritical). fl. light green, with a few brown spots at the base of the blunt chin; lip whitish, mealy, the middle lobe very much crisped. Western tropical Africa, 1882. This species is very similar to P. luteola, but larger.

P. lineata (lined). fl. greenish, striped with brown, minute, disposed in spikes. l. linear-ligulate. Pseudo-bulbs pyriform. Guatemala, 1870. (Ref. B. 80.) The Mexican variety, elatior, is rather larger in all its parts. (Ref. B. 81.) P. luteola (yellowish). fl. yellowish-green, minute, disposed in oblong, remote, dense-flowered spikelets, 1in. to 3in. long. l. oblong-lanceolate, acute, plicate, many-nerved, sheathed at base, distichous, shorter than the scape, recurved at apex. Stem thickened at base. Mexico, 1818. (H. E. F. 103.) SYN. Dendrobium polystachyon (L. B. C. 428; L. C. B. 20). P. puberula (puberulous). fl. green, pubescent, disposed in paniculate, thyrsiform spikes. l. lanceolate, seven-nerved, longer than the scape. Pseudo-bulbs ovate. Sierra Leone, 1822. (B. R. 851.) P. pubescens (pubescent). fl. bright yellow, streaked with red, few, fragrant, terminating an ancipitous, flexuous scape; lip small, trident-shaped, bearded on the inside with long hairs. l. binate, oblong-linear, flat. Delagoa Bay, 1838. (B. M. 5586.) SYN. Epiphora pubescens.

P. rufinula (reddish). fl. in a few-flowered, simple, slightly hairy raceme; sepals cinnamon-brown outside, greenish inside, washed with light brown on the borders; petals greenish, with brown tips; lip yellowish on disk, the front borders light purple, with a rather long ridge, and the furfuraceous surface caused by fragile hairs. l. narrow-ligulate, blunt, in pairs at the flowering season. Pseudo-bulbs stick-like, thickened at base, 2in. or less long. Zanzibar, 1879.