CHAPTER. LXVI. 
VANDA. 
FEW genera possess qualities better calculated to recommend 
them to the Orchid-grower than this. It includes about 
thirty species, the majority of which are easy to cultivate, 
handsome in habit, and very beautiful in bloom. V. suavis 
and V. tricolor have perhaps the stateliest habit of all Old- 
World Orchids; and in V. cerulea and V. Sanderiana we 
have exceptional size and beauty of colour in the flowers. 
All the species are evergreen and epiphytal; they are 
distributed over a large area, stretching from the Himalayas, 
through India to the Malayan Archipelago, one species 
being found in tropical Australia. The first species to 
make its appearance in the gardens of this country was 
V. Roxburghii, which flowered in 1820. The leaves are 
most frequently strap-shaped, occasionally oblong, and in 
a few species terete, almost always distichous and of 
leathery texture, the apices being either bilobed or curiously 
jagged. The flowers are in few- or many-flowered racemes, 
which originate at the base of the leaves, either in the 
axils or on the opposite side of the stem. The sepals and 
usually similar petals are spreading, often much narrowed 
towards the base; the lip is continuous with the short, 
thick column, the front portion expanded, the small side 
lobes erect, and the base (except in V. Batemanni and 
