PHAL^NOPSIS. 527 



P. amalDilis, LimUey (/ Bhime).—ThQ Queen of Orchids. 

 This magnificent plant, which attaches itself to the trunks of 

 trees by "its stout fleshy roots, produces its graceful racemes 

 of flowers nearly all the year round. The large thick elliptic- 

 lanceolate obliquely retuse leaves form a distichous tuft, and 

 from their axils proceed the long drooping racemes of spreading 

 flowers, which are each three inches across, and arranged in a 

 distichous manner along the rachis. The elliptic-ovate sepals 

 and the broad subrhomboidal petals are pure white, the lip_ of 

 the same colour, but beautifully streaked and spotted inside 

 with rose pink and yellow, shorter than the sepals, three- 

 lobed, the side lobes ascending petaloid, the central _ lobe 

 hastate, bearing at the extremity two incurved twisted cirrhi. 

 The flowers continue in perfection a long time, if they are 

 kept free from damp, but if allowed to get wet they are apt 

 to become spotted. There are many varieties of this fine 

 species. — Java, Amboyna, Fhilippine Islands. 



-piG.—Bof. Mng., t. 4297; Bot. Reg., 1838, t. S-t; Blume, TabeUen, 44; 

 J(L, JRumpJiia, tt. 194. 199 ; F/ore des Serres, t. 36 ; Moore, III. Orch. PL, 

 Ph'alajnopsis, t. 1 ; Bennett, Fl. Jav., t. 8 ; Maund, Botanist, iii. t. 133 ; 

 Paxlon, Mag. Bot., vii. 49, with tab. 



Syn. — P. Aphrodite. 



P. amabilis Dayana, Hort.—k very beautiful and distinctly 

 marked variety, named in compliment to John Day, Esq., 

 Tottenham, by whom it was first flowered. It has very large 

 flowers, of which the two lower sepals are thickly but dis- 

 tinctly dotted with carmine over about half theu- surface ; 

 and the lip has the side lobes coloured deep yellow at the 

 lower edge, and the central trowel-shaped or hastate lobe 

 heavily marked with carmine-crimson across the base, having 

 a distinct stripe of the same colour down its centre. — Eastern 

 Archipelago. 



Fig. — Orchid Album, i. t. 11, 



P. amethystina, BcU. f.—An elegant Httle plant, perhaps 

 the dwarfest of Phalfenopsids, which, though not so showy as 

 some of its congeners, is yet a nice addition to this beautiful 

 and popular family. The plant is furnished with dark-coloured 

 flattened roots, and the leaves are cuneate-obovate acute, stri- 

 ated, three to four inches long, stout, waved at the edges, and 

 dark green. The scape is about a foot long, sometimes with a 

 few short branches, and bears several rather small flowers, the 

 sepals and petals white, spreading, and the lip white, tinged 

 with yellow at the base, the centre part rich amethyst 



