Trichoglottis
(from thrix, trichos, hair, and glottis, a tongue; alluding to the fine hairs on the labellum). ORD. Orchideae. A small genus (four or five species) of inconspicuous, stove Orchids, mostly natives of the Malayan Archipelago. Flowers small or mediocre, one or a few on very short, lateral peduncles; sepals spreading, the lateral ones very broad, adnate to the foot of the column, the dorsal one and petals oblong; lateral lobes of lip short, erect, the middle one rather broad; column short, wingless. Leaves distichous, scattered at the sides of the stem, narrow. Stem leafy, elongated, not pseudo-bulbous. The species mentioned below thrive in small pans of peat and sphagnum, in the East India house, and require an abundant supply of moisture when growing.
T. cochlearis (spoon-like). fl. white, with purple bars on both sides of the sepals and petals, smaller than those of Saccolabium violaceum; spur conical; lip spoon-like, very thick, with a few purple blotches; inflorescence very short, zigzag, four-flowered. l. like those of Sarcanthus rostratus, but thicker, and with a quite unequal point on one side projecting much farther than the other one. h. 8in. Sumatra, 1883.
T. fasciata (banded).* fl., sepals and petals cuneate-oblong, acute, the lateral sepals falcate; sepals closely cross-banded with pale chestnut-brown; lip whitish, with yellow tips to the side plates of the anterior part and a few purplish spots on the keel of the under side. l. distichous, oblong, bilobed. Eastern tropical Asia, 1872. (W. O. A. 208.)
