Cattleiane. : | Tab. 6... 
VANDA TERETIFOLIA. | 
| Nav. Orv. Orchidee. Sect.5. Br. Prodr. 1. 330. Linn. Syst. Gynandria Monogynia. 
aptere continuum, trifidum, 
- abe aratum implici (breviusve producta) Columne : 
VANDA, Br. Labellum calcaratum, cum base simplici ( i Fuso Bae Oe 
lobo medio carnoso. Petala patentia distincta. Masse pollinis 2, obliqué bilobe. 
Vanda foliis teretibus, perianthii laciniis interioribus brevioribus. % . 
: . . . bid « ‘ 
Descr. Rami stricti, teretes, foliosi, radices pallidas, tortuosas promentes. Folia teretia, 2-uneialia, scares saint oe 
giora, cum caule et vagina articulata. Spica simplex, horizontalis, foliorum longitudine, 5-flora. a as s here aes e730 
thesin cuneati, resupinati; lacinie oblonga, reflexe, lurido-lutee, obtuse, dorso et tribus nervis intus sone ee ue : 
rioribus brevioribus. Labellum album, ovatum, dependens, laciniis longius, cum processu villoso column elastice ase - fe 
basi in calcare obtuso, sanguinco, lineato productum, versus apicem utrinque 1-dentatum, dentibus erectis apice Coenen i eat 
dimidia inferiore 2-loculare, membrand transversa foraminibus duobus pertusa, pro receptione ese! corporis cone ou sit 
triangularis, margine et apice 2-corni pilosis, dorso interiori calcaris affixi. Columna laciniis multo Dy lurido- utea, Eee 
anteriore villosd, pland, apice utrinque I-denticulata, lined pilosa ab utraque dente PCAN: ; antice circa faucem stigmatis 
membrana quadrata, erecta, cartilaginea. Anthera terminalis, opercularis, persistens, anuce elongata, 2-locularis, loculis SEG 
tis. Masse pollinis 2, cerex, dure, integra, posticé obscure foveate, pedicello affixe apice falcato com presso; basi in ORT 
cartilagined, 3-laterali dilatato, que, ejus lateribus membranis faucis stigmatis applicatis, fit quond stigma horizontalis. Stigma 
infundibulare, purpureum, viscidum: g/anduld massarum pollinis pedicello medio proxima. Ovarium perianthio longius, contortum. 
me SCL RELA SS REND SC 
Among the many inexplicable phenomena connected with the geography of plants, there is one which cannot fail 
to strike the most careless observer. We mean the well-known fact, that countries widely separated by nature 
produce plants, the mutual resemblance of which is so strong, that without an actual comparison of specimens the 
would be pronounced to be absolutely the same ; but which such an examination shows to be really and sufficiently 
distinguished by some character or other. Thus Mr. Brown has ascertained, since the publication of his Prodromus, 
that the Marsilea 4-folia of New Holland is different from the plant which bears the same name in Europe ; the 
@uince of China is not the same as the Quince of this country, although similar to it; the Rosa setigera of Georgia 
and the Rosa sinica of China assume appearances under which they could scarcely be distinguished, although most 
truly distinct species. We are led to these remarks by the striking similarity between the plant we have now before 
_us and the Epidendrum triste of Forster. Of this there exists an unpublished figure, by G. Forster, in the Banksian 
collection, made in New Caledonia, where only it has been discovered. At first sight we thought it was certainly the 
same as our Vanda teretifolia, which is a native of China. The singular leaves, the mode of growth, the inflorescence, 
the roots of the two plants, are alike ; and in the bird-like form of the expanded flower they also agree. But Forster’s 
plant has a dark labellum, and a perianth with the inner segments longest, which in ours are the shortest with the 
labellum white. 
Vanda is a generic name applied by Mr. Brown, in the Botanical Register, to a parasitical plant from India, with 
flat channelled leaves and fine showy blossoms. Of this plant the character is said not to agree entirely with Aerides 
paniculatum of the same work ; but at the same time to resemble it in so many particulars, as to render it advisable 
that the definition of the genus should be modified in such a manner as to include both. It is on this account, chiefly, 
that we have referred our subject to Vanda, from which, it must be confessed, it differs remarkably in habit. : 
The manner in which feecundation takes place in Orchidee has always beena problem in botany, which has never 
yet been satisfactorily solved. On account of the obstacles which the economy of this family presents to the usual 
method provided by nature for the fertilization of the vegetable embryo, it has been thought that the immediate appli- 
cation of the pollen to the stigma is not in them of its usual importance, and that the necessary communication be- 
tween the organs must take place by intus-susception. Without absolutely avowing ourselves satisfied with this, we 
may adduce this plant asa strong imstance in its favour. For it appears impossible that its pollen masses can ever 
escape from the box-like anther in which they are shut up ; and evenif it were possible that such an event could take 
place, it must happen after the expansion of the flower, when the masses are hard and dry and seem incapable of per- 
forming the office for which they are destined. Indeed, it may safely be doubted whether the curious apparatus 
about the mouth of the stigma is not intended as a means of retaining the pollen fixed within its cell, and of preventing 
the possibility of communication between it and the stigma. Probably the gland-like scar on the upper edge of the 
stigma, which seems to be the proscolla, may be the point through which the communication is effected by absorption : 
especially as the stalk, to which the pollen masses are attached, rests firmly upon it at that place where its substance 
ceases to be membranous, and becomes cartilaginous. 
Native of China, from whence it was introduced by Mr. Brookes of Newington Green. For our specimen weare 
indebted to Mr. Cattley, in whose stove at Barnet it produced flowers last autumn. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
1. Front view of an expanded flower. 2. A side view of the same. 3. 'The column, 
mediately after the expansion of the flower. 4. The same without the anther, 
placed. 5, The same with the pollen-masses and their stalk removed, showing the mouth of the stigma. 6. A front view of the 
same. 7. A section of the column, to show the funnel-shaped stigma. 8. A section of the lip of the flower: 
: : > @, the trianeular 
fleshy body. 9. The latter taken out of the spur, and seen in front. 10. A transverse section of the spur, made just ance the 
two holes which communicate with itscells. 11. Anther. 19. The same seen from beneath, showing its two cells. 13. A side 
view of the pollen-masses and their stalk. 14. A front view of the same. ee 
with all its appendages, as it appears im- 
showing how the pollen-masses and their stalk are 
/ 
