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Rhynchostylis (From rhynchos a beak)

(from rhynchos, a beak, and stulos, a pillar; alluding to the shape of the column). ORD. Orchideae. A small genus (two or three species) of stove, epiphytal orchids, natives of the East Indies and the Malayan Archipelago. Flowers rather large or mediocre, shortly pedicellate; lateral sepals broader than the dorsal one; lip affixed to the column, profoundly saccate at base, with obsolete, lateral lobes; column short, thick; racemes lateral, long, dense-flowered. Leaves distichous, coriaceous or fleshy, flat; sheaths persistent, concealing the stem. For culture of R. retusa, the best-known species, see Saccolabium.

R. retusa (retuse).* fl. white, striped with violet-pink; petals half as wide as the ovate sepals; lip one-coloured, with a compressed, truncate-conical spur, the lamina lanceolate, inflexed, slightly costate at back; racemes cylindrical, dense. l. 1ft. long, channelled, unequally truncate. East Indies, 1820. A pretty species. SYNS. Saccolabium Blumei (L. S. O. 47), S. guttatum (B. M. 4108), Sarcanthus guttatus (B. R. 1443).