Tas. 4686. | 
DENDROBIUM cretaceum. 
Chalk-white Dendrobium. 
Nat. Ord. Orncu1pE®.—GyYNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, TaB. 4352.) 
Denprosium (§ Eudendrobium) cretaceum; foliis lanceolatis apice oblique 
emarginatis obtusiusculis, floribus solitariis, sepalis lineari-lanceolatis pa- 
tentissimis obtusiusculis, labello subrotundo indiviso cucullato fimbriato- 
dentato utrinque pubescente basi foveato et obsoleto 3-lamellato, mento 
brevi obtuso. Lindl, 
DenpRoBIUM cretaceum. Lindl. Bot. Reg. v. 33. t. 62. 
It is a misfortune with many of the Dendrodia whose stems 
bear the flowers, solitary (as here) or two or three from the 
same point opposite to that of the insertion of the leaf, that 
when the blossoms are in perfection the foliage has fallen. 
This is the case with the species now before us. The old long 
jointed stem here shown has a fair sprinkling of flowers, but 
there are no leaves, save on a young stem that is forming at the 
base of the old ones, and which, in its turn, is to shed its leaves 
and then throw out.blossoms. Nor does our species boast of 
rich colours in the sepals and petals. Their general or ground 
colour is white, and of that dead and chalky kind which sug- 
gested to Dr. Lindley the specific name of cre¢acewm. Our plant 
was sent to us from Assam in 1851 ; its flowering (in June, 1852) 
confirms the correctness of Dr. Lindley’s suspicion, that the 
flowers are always solitary, not in twos or threes, as is charac- 
teristic of the section Hudendrobium (Grastidium, Blume). Mr. 
Griffith found the same species in Mergui and the Khasya 
hills, and Mr. Thomas Lobb sent it to the excellent Nursery of 
Messrs. Veitch, Exeter. 
Descr. Epiphytal. Roof a few rather slender but fleshy 
DECEMBER Ist, 1852. 
