Tab. 7371. 

 DENDROBIUM atroviolaceum. 



Native of New Guinea. 



Nat. Ord. Orchide^;. — Tribe DendrobievE. 

 Genus Dendrobium, Sw. ; {Benth. & Hook.f. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p. 498.) 



Dendrobium (Stachyobium) atro-violaceum ; pseudobulbis fusiformibus sessili- 

 bus sulcatis demum stipitatis 2-foliis, foliis oblongis obtusis crasse coria- 

 ceis supra lsete viridibus subtus pallidis nervis 5-7 viridibus percursis, 

 pedunculo multifloro, floribus amplis, sepalis petalisque subtortis margini- 

 bus recurvis primulinis purpureo-maculatis, sepalis ovato-lanceolatis 

 subacutis, petalis obovato-oblongis acutis ob margines infra medium 

 revolutas quasi spatbulatis, labelli lobis lateralibus amplis auric alas formi- 

 bus violaceis albo striatis, intermedio cordiformi obtuso recurvo, disco 

 postice violaceo albo striato bilamellato. 



D. atro-violaceum, Bolfe in Gard. Ghron. 1890, vol. i. p. 512. 



Of all Dendrobes known to me I cannot recall amongst 

 recent discoveries one so strikingly unlike its congeners in 

 coloration, and at the same time so beautiful in this 

 respect, as D. atroviolaceum. As Mr. Rolfe observes in 

 his description of it, cited above, its nearest ally is 

 D. macrofliyllum, A. Rich. (Tab. 5649) a noble species, 

 with broad leaves, over a foot long, and hairy inflorescence. 

 Technically, both belong to the section Stachyobium, of 

 Dendrobium, and to the rather heterogeneous subsection 

 of Speciosse ; but whether or no they may be included in 

 the latter, they with a few other far Eastern species form 

 a small group distinguished by the long clavate stem or 

 pseudobulb, with two, rarely three terminal coriaceous 

 leaves, and a terminal raceme of flowers, with a deeply 

 3-lobed lip. The group includes species with hairy and 

 with glabrous inflorescence. Of the hairy flowered are 

 the original J). macrophyllum t which ranges from Java to 

 the Philippines and New Guinea ; and D. Gordoni, Home 

 (Journ. Linn. Soc. xx. 372), from the Fiji Islands ; and of 

 the glabrous-flowered are I), atro-violaceum, D . chloropterum, 

 Reichb. f. & S. Moore (in Trim. Jmirn. Bot. 1878, 137, t. 

 196) from New Guinea, and D. trigrinum, Rolfe (Annals of 

 Botany, vol. v. p. 507) from the Solomon Islands. In Veitch's 



August 1st, 1894. 



