78 DENDROBIUM. 



This superb Deudrobe was one of the discoveries of Cuming, in 

 the neighbourhood of Manila, during his travels in the Philippine 

 Islands, 1836 — 40, when many splendid orchids became known for 

 the first time to European amateurs. It was sent by him to 

 Messrs. Loddiges, in whose nursery at Hackney it flowered in 1839, 

 and was described in the Botanical Register of the same year 

 under the name of Dendrobium macrophyllum, by Dr. Lindley, who 

 overlooked the fact that the French botanist, Achille Eichard, 

 had described six years previously another species with large leaves 

 under the same name. Eichard's plant, which is said to have been 

 brought from New Guinea, is unknown to horticulture; but a variety 

 from Java, called by Sir J. D. Hooker Vedchianum, and described 

 in these pages, is still in cultivation. The variety anosmum was also 

 introduced by Cuming; one of its chief peculiarities is the almost 

 entire absence of the rhubarb odour from the flowers, which suggested 

 the name. Burke's variety, a very beautiful one, was introduced by 

 us in 1883, through the collector whose name it bears ; Colonel 

 Deare's was brought to England by the gallant officer whose name 

 it bears, and is one of the purest white Dendrobes in cultivation ; 

 Hidton's was sent to us, in 1869, from one of the islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago ; it has now become extremely rare. 



D. taurinum. 



Stachyobium — Speciosce* Stems cylindric, erect, 3 — 4 feet high, as 

 thick as a man's fore finger. Leaves ovate-oblong, sheathing at the 

 base, emarginate. Racemes pseudo-terminal, 10 — 20 inches long, many- 

 flowered. Flowers large ; sepals ovate, obtuse, reflexed, cream-white 

 tinged with green ; petals linear, twisted, as long again as the sepals, 

 reddish brown toned with purple ; lip oblong, crisped at the apex, pale 

 rose- purple, traversed by reddish brown raised lines along the centre ; 

 spur conical, large. 



Dendrobium taurinum, Lindl. Bot. Reg. 1843, t. 28. Paxt. Mag. Bot. X. p. 217. 

 Van Houtte's Fl. des Sevres, t. 1904. 



This is also one of Cuming's discoveries in the Philippine Islands, 



and communicated by him to Messrs. Loddiges, in whose nursery it 



flowered for the first time in October, 1842. It was named taurinum 



from the fancied resemblance of the flowers to the face and horns 



* The elongated narrow petals (often twisted) of Dendrobium taurinum and its immediate 

 allies, including D. Stratiotes ami D. Strcbloceras, described supra, afford, a very distinct sub- 

 sectional character which might conveniently separate them from SiKtiosoi, under the name 

 of Anlennata, or Ceratobium, as suggested by Lindley, in Jour. Linn. Soc. III. p. 2. 



