Artificial key to the Orchid Genera of the Netherlands Indies, together with those of New Guinea, the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines

It is often a very difficult task for the many amateurs and cultivators of Orchids, and I may add hardly in a less degree to students of the flora of the Netherlands Indies, to classify properly the Orchids they come across. The reason for this lies not only in the fact that the generic characters in this large order are often not easily distinguished, but also in the fact that nearly every genus counts a certain number of more or less anomalous species, so that the limits between the genera are not always easy to determine. Besides, many descriptions are, even in principal points, incomplete, either because the authors had no sufficiently good material at their disposal, or because they did not take the trouble to draw up good descriptions. For these reasons species are unavoidably often placed into a wrong genus, to which fact a great deal of the prevailing confusion is to be ascribed. Although in the course of years many questions have been solved, it cannot be denied that new problems did arise. Only very accurate and complete descriptions, the best, of course, elucidated by figures after fresh or alcohol material, can put us in a position to decrease these difficulties.