Nicholas Dalzell’s orchids in western India

Abstract

: The Scottish botanist and forester N.A. Dalzell (1817–1878) described nearly 300 taxa in western India, including nineteen orchid taxa. Nevertheless, most of the orchid names (except eight) were synonymized under earlier available names. The purpose of this paper is to review the orchid names described by Dalzell. All of his collections went to K in parts (some duplicates were later distributed to CAL, DD, and GH), and some of the drawings have been distributed to E and BM. The orchid collections from western India by Dalzell, J.S. Law (1810– 1885), and D. Ritchie (1809–1866) housed at K were arranged and labelled by J.E. Stocks (1820–1854) and are briefly discussed here along with the associated drawings.