J 
I 
is perfectly well grown, it assumes qnite another appearance. From amidst tlie deep green convex 
leaves springs up a branclied scape, eigliteen inches or two feet high, of an intense and shining 
purple, at the ends of which appear for months together a long succession of rosy star-like flowers, 
having a most brilHant ruby lip, warmed with yellow at the base, and enriched by intense violet 
at the upper end. 
The history of the species was originally pubhshed in the Gardener's Chronicle of Oct. 7th, 1848, 
''This is a very unexpected addition to the genus Phalsenopsis, of which 
it has exactly the habit. The flowers are small, numerous, and arranged in a loose spike. The lip 
wants the tendrils so remarkable in IPh. amabilis and grandijl 
rose-colour, with almost the shape of a trowel. It was found in ManiUa by Mr. T. Lobb, who sent 
it to Messrs. Veitch, and who describes it as having a spike of flowers from twelve to eighteen inches 
long ; that which we saw was not more than four inches long, but it had blossomed at sea, and is 
probably inferior to what it will become hereafter.-'-' 
with the present figure will amply show. 
in the following words : 
How inferior, a comparison of this description 
In the year 1849, the younger professor Eeichenbach, who has distinguished himself by his 
critical acquaintance with Orchids, repubhshed it in the Limim, a German botanical periodical, 
under the name of Pi. eguestru, he having ascertained that a certain SiauroghUis equcstris, described 
by M. Schauer in his account of the dried Orchids collected by Professor Meyer, was not 
distmgmshable from Phaknopsis. We see no necessity for altering the name by which we originally 
made the plant known, even although the specific name equedris was applied to the plant at an earlier 
iJibacli s specific character for the convenience of those 
date. We, however, subjoin M 
botanists who do not possess the Linnaa : 
Phalcmopsis 
fo. oblongis, cuneatis, ped. 
squamarum vetustarum exortis, teretiusculis, 
'Lv^.w;! ^'^"^'"'^ '"• ""^""S'^' «^°ea"«. ped. ex axiUis squamarum vetustarum exortis 
3-vag,nati nunc ramosis, superne flexuosLs br. minimis, aeutis, p. ph. e. oblongis, acutis, p. ph. i. o 
; Jr":!^Lll':*r"' "^ '^^^^^ ^'^^--^ ^--ti, intermedia S,W a ife L apic^ 
attenuatOj callo postice bilobo in basi. 
obovatiSj acutis^ 
ipiculura retusum 
Pf 
1 ''^Xf^i T.*. ^'''" '* f' ^^"^'''' ^^''^ ''''^' ^''"^'^ ^^^'-^t^^^* '^'^ gi^e^ to this plant, whose 
admirable health seems only owing to care, rest, and ample ventilation, combined with the ordinary 
requisites ol skilful management. ^ 
