148 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
recognized as Vanda Lowtiz,as has been already 
mentioned, ranks among the grand curiosities of 
botanic science. Like some of the Catasetums 
and Cycnoches, it bears two distinct types of 
flower on each spike, but the instance of R. Lowzz 
is even more perplexing. In those other cases 
the differing forms represent male and female sex, 
but the microscope has not yet discovered any 
sort of reason for the like eccentricity of this 
Renanthera. Its proper inflorescence, as one may 
put it, is greenish yellow, blotched with brown, 
three inches in diameter, clothing a spike some- 
times twelve feet long. The first two flowers to 
open, however—those at the base—present a 
strong contrast in all respects — smaller, of 
different shape, tawny yellow in colour, dotted 
with crimson. It would be a pleasing task for 
ingenious youth with a bent towards science to 
seek the utility of this arrangement. 
Orchids are spreading fast over the world in 
these days, and we may expect to hear of other 
instances where a species has taken root in alien 
climes like 2. coccinea in Brazil. I cannot cite a 
parallel at present. But Mr. Sander informs me 
that there is a growing demand for these plants in 
realms which have their own native orchids. We 
have an example in the letter which has been 
