RENANTHERA AND VANDA 71 



RENANTHERA 



This Eastern genus of about half-a-dozen species, all 

 with an elongated stem, is best known in gardens by R. 

 coccinea, which has stems sometimes 20 feet long. It clings 

 by means of stem roots, and when it is happy it produces 

 a magnificent panicle of butterfly-like scarlet flowers. It 

 can only be grown successfully in a large house. I have 

 seen it in great glory in the large conservatory at Chats- 

 worth, where it had grown to the top of a birch-tree trunk 

 about 20 feet high, which was well furnished with the 

 stems and roots of the Orchid. It is grown in the same 

 way in the Mexican House at Kew, where it flowers now 

 and then. R. coccinea grows in woods in Cochin China. 

 It is cultivated in the gardens of China for its gorgeous 

 flowers, of course. One of the oldest plants in the famous 

 collection of Orchids formed by the late Sir Trevor Law- 

 rence was a specimen of R. coccinea, which in 1911 had 

 been in his possession thirty-three years, and was said to 

 have been brought to this country from China as long ago 

 as 1815. 



VANDA 



This large and varied genus contains two species which 

 may be called climbers, namely, V. teres and V. Hookeriana. 

 The former is wild in the woods of Lower Bengal and other 

 parts of India, where its stems grow to a length of many 

 feet and attach themselves to trees by means of their stem 

 roots. In this country we do not allow the stems to grow 

 to any length a yard at the most being considered long 

 enough ; and as the plant will stand beheading like any 

 Cactus, and is supposed to flower all the better for it, there 

 does not appear to be any good reason for letting it grow 



