388 fetch: an orchid new to ceyLiON. 



the intloixisceiice is green or yellowish green, not purple or 

 brown. Hooker, in Cuitis's Botanical Magazine (t. 7284), 

 states that the raceme is sometimes branched, and Wight's 

 figure shows that condition ; that has not occurred on the 

 Ceylon specimens available at present, but the non-flowering 

 stems hav'c produced a number of shoots from the uppermost 

 node after the top of the stem has been cut off. 



The flowers arc up to three inches across. They differ in 

 colour, to some extent, from the figure in Curtis's Botanical 

 Magazine (t. 7284), being rose-purple, a much warmer colom- 

 than there depicted, while the ridges on the lip are usually not 

 green, or if green are not so prominently green as m the figure. 



Comparison with the closely allied Ceylon species, Arundina 

 minor Lindl., has not yet been possible, as the herbarium 

 material of the latter species is very poor, and no exact locality 

 for it is now known, though Trimcn stated that it was rather 

 common. From the paintings available, it differs from A. 

 bambusifolia in its rigid leaves, coloured rachis, and the strongly 

 yellow lip with poorly developed rose-coloured margins. The 

 flower of A. densa Lindl., which is cultivated in the Botanic 

 Gardens, closely resembles A. bambusifolia, but the lip is 

 marked with yellow ; the plant, however, has a coloured rachis, 

 and its rather rigid darker green leaves contrast strongly with 

 the drooping leaves of A. bambusifolia. 



A num})er of Cejlon specimens of A. bambusifolia have now 

 been plaiited in the Botanic Gardens, and, with the exception 

 of one introduced from Assam in 1911, all the plants of A. 

 hambasifolia in the Pcradeniya Gardens are of Ceylon origin. 



