32 DENDROBIUM. 



purple, the petals somewhat broader than the sepals; lip clawed, ovate- 

 oblong, pubescent on the upper surface and minutely ciliated at the 

 margin, with a large yellow disc surrounded with white and with a 

 mauve-purple blotch at the apex. 



Dendrobium crassinode, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. 1869, p. 164. Bot. Mag. t. 5766. 

 Williams' Orch. Alb. IV. t. 152. 



hybrid— crassinodi-Wardianum. 



Vegetative and floral organs well-nigh intermediate between the two 

 supposed parents ; nodes of stem less developed than in Dendrobium 

 crassinode, with the internodes a little longer and less stout ; the label- 

 lum less acute than in D. Wardianum, and with the maroon blotches 

 much smaller. 



D. crassinodi-Wardianum, supra. D. melanophthalmum, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. 

 XXV. (1886), p. 426. 



SUb-vars. — albiflorum (Gard. Chron. IV. (1875), p. 683), flowers white, 

 except the orange-yellow disc on the lip ; Barberianum (Gard. Chron. III. 

 (1875), p. 683), flowers of brighter colours than in the typical Dendro- 

 bium crassinode, the mauve-purple spots at the tips of the segments 

 are also larger and of a deeper colour. 



Dendrobium crassinode was gathered by Colonel Benson, in 1868, on 

 the mountains of Arracan, 150 miles east from Moulmein, at 2,500 

 feet elevation, and sent by him to the Royal Gardens at Kew and to 

 our Chelsea Nursery, in both of which establishments it flowered 

 simultaneously in January of the following year. It had, however, 

 been made known to science ten years earlier, by the Rev. C. Parish, 

 who sent a sketch of it to Sir W. J. Hooker, at Kew, from 

 materials procured in the Siamese province of Kiong-koung.* The 

 hybrid flowered in our houses in the spring of 1886, and is 

 interesting as being the first, and probably the only supposed natural 

 hybrid Dendrobe that has yet appeared ; this very interesting plant 

 is now in the collection of Baron Schroeder, at The Dell, near Staines. 

 The sub-varieties albiflorum and Barberianum were introduced from 

 Burmah by Messrs Low and Co., of Clapton, and subsequently by 

 ourselves from localities remote from that in which Colonel Benson's 

 plants were obtained, whence it is certain that D. crassinode has 

 a considerable range in the eastern peninsula of India. The flowering 

 season of D. crassinode is from January to March. The specific 

 name refers to the swollen joints. 



* Bot. Mag. sub. t. 5766. 



