ROUGH NOTES OX SIX COMMON HILL ORCHIDS. 419 



insist that it should be Thunia. However, the name here given was 

 received from the late Director of the Botanical Department of 

 Northern India on sending a specimen to be named by him, and this is 

 good enough for an amateur who knows nothing and cares less about 

 the warfare between Phaius and Thunia. These orchids grow both on 

 trees and rocks. They have curved stems up to about two feet in 

 length, thick at the base and tapering to a fine point. These in the 

 young growth are clothed with leaves from top to bottom, the lower 

 ones being small and roundish, while the upper ones are lance-shaped : 

 all are of a slightly bluish tinge, and they all clasp the stem. One of the 

 advantages of this orchid is that its flowers appear on the com- 

 pletion of the new growth and on the same stem as the leaves, 

 which adds much to its beauty. The flowers are very handsome 

 and continue to be thrown out from the end of the stem in 

 succession for a considerable time. They are very large and pure white, 

 except the lip which is marked with yellow on the top and with fine 

 purple lines in the throat. The lip, too, is exquisitely frilled and covered 

 with very fine crystalline hairs. Phaius albus has a large range, 

 growing from 3,000 to nearly 6,000 feet above the sea. Season of 

 rest, October to April. Season of growth (during which also they 

 flower), May to September. They usually flower in July and August. 

 It is stated that this is the only orchid from which cuttings can be 

 taken and that it is only necessary to cut up an old stem (at the time 

 when the new growths have fully developed) into equal portions and 

 put them in a pot as though they were ordinary cuttings. But this 

 orchid of its own accord throws out many young plants from the old 

 nearly dried up stems ; so all that need be done is to cut off" such a 

 stem, tack it on to the bark of a tree, and assist the young roots to take 

 by fastening a little damp moss over them. 



Watering. — Wild orchids will always be found in such situations (the 

 rounded branches of trees or steeply sloping rocks) that perfect drainage 

 at their roots is assured. There are of course exceptions or apparent, 

 exceptions, such as some of the Cymbidiums which delight in getting 

 their large fleshy roots into a hole containing much decayed matter and 

 holding ;i considerable amount of moisture ; but these orchids are, 

 perhaps, more terrestial than epiphytal in their habits. Others, again, 

 which appear to us to be placed by Nature in very open dry situations, 

 probably receive much more moisture than we imagine from the 



