17-i BUR if A, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



short and thick. Pollpn-masses 2, bi-lobed, attached by a more or less 'wcdgc-shaped 

 stipes to a large roundish or sub-trianguhir gland. Species about 12. 



V. GIGANTEA. 



A very large species, -with broad, fleshy, strap-shaped leaves, 18 inches or more 

 long by 3 or 4 broad, blunt and eraarginate at the end. Raceme drooping, 1 foot or 

 more long, consisting of large yellow flowers 3 inches across, marked irregularly with 

 round spots of a reddish-brown colour. This is undoubtedly a veiy handsome Orchiil, 

 but the flowers, though really large, are dwarfed and rendered comparatively in- 

 conspicuous by the still larger and abundant foliage. It sometimes forms masses of 

 extraordinary size. In my early days of botanizing in Ikirma, and while yet but 

 indifferently acquainted with its (3rehids, by good fortune I fell in with tliis jilant on 

 the Shan border. The yellow flowers caught my eye from amidst a considerable mass 

 of foliage, high up on the branch of a forest tree. A Barman was sent up, who after 

 some little difficulty, by the free use of his dim, succeeded in detaching the mass, 

 which struck me with astonishment as it came crashing down. As it lay upon the 

 ground, it was as much as one man could drag aloug by his greatest effort. All I 

 could do was to cut off some comparatively small portions (each in itself a goodly 

 plant) to carry away with me, and leave the bulk behind, as the whole was a great 

 deal more than I could have packed on an elephant, of which we had several in the 

 party. It is, apparently, a very local plant, but abundant in some places, viz. in the 

 shady jungles about Tavoy, and in the Yunzalin district.' 



V. PARisnir. 



A coarse-looking plant with a rather flattened stem and broad leatheiy but flabby 

 leaves, about 8x3 inches. The flowers are borne in an erect raceme of 6 to 8 

 flowers, which are nearly as large as those of V. gigantea, and resemble them much 

 in their markings. They are uniformly dotted with round spots of a red-brown 

 colour on an orange ground. The column and base of the lip are white, and the 

 somewhat triangular middle lobe is purplish-lilac. It has a delicious fragrance, 

 resembling honey. It is, I think, the freest and most rapid grower known to me, 

 and very easy of cultivation. 



I come now to a vei-y puzzling group of Orchids. I have lying on the table before 

 me as I write, figures and drawings of Varuhi Roxhurghii (true), of V. Jiiuhiirgliii, 

 far. unicolor, V. Bensoni, V. Denis'iniana, anil of a Vanda of ray own finding, which 

 I have marked doubtfully as V. Bensoni. Size and colour apart, I look in vain for 

 anything among all these which, in any other order of plants, would be reckoned 

 sufficient for a specific distinction. One description will serve fairly well for all. 

 Accordingly I give that of 



V. Bensoxi. 



As it is in Bot. Mng. I^o. 5611 : — " Leaves distichous, obliquely and unequally- 

 toothed at the end. Flower-spikes erect, many-flowered, longer than the leaves. 

 Flowers distant, about 2 inches across. Sepals and petals unguiculate (clawed) obovate, 

 obtuse. Lip about the same length as the sepals, with two small, triangular, rather 

 blunt side-lobes or auricles at its base, from in front of which it is ovate, convex, 

 traversed by 3 lamellte, and terminated by a kidney-shaped, broad, bitid apex." 



I repeat, this description (for I have omitte^d observations on the colour) will 

 serve for all the so-called species above mentioned. There may be trifling differences 

 in outline, as. for instance, in the posterior lobes of the lip, which, according to my 

 drawing of V. Deninioiinna, are rather rounded than ti'iangular, but they are of no 

 consequence as serving to distinguish species. The general aspect of all the plants 

 is much the same, and the form of the flowers, including the crucial part, the lip, with 



- Since ■writiag what is above, my eye has chanced to light on the following paragraph in the 

 Gardener's Chronicle, of July 16, 1S81 : — " Sir J. Hooker says in the BotuHical Ma,iaziiie that he has 

 been credibly informed of a siuf,'le plant of Vanda teres in Burma being a sufficient load for an elephant.' ' 

 There is, I fancy, some mistake here. I have indeed said this of F. gigantea ; but the growth of 

 V. teres is of so light a character that it could not possibly be true of it. 



