DENDROBIUM. 79 



of a bull. Although one of the most remarkable of Dendrobes it 

 is uow seldom seen in collections, owing chiefly to the difficulty in 

 establishing newly imported plants, a circumstance probably due to 

 the situation selected by this species in its native country; this is 

 almost invariably on the Mangrove trees in the swamps skh-ting 

 the sea-shore, and where, during severe storms, the plants are 

 sometimes washed by the spray. In such places the stems of 

 Dendrobium taurinum often attain a height of ten feet, and pro- 

 duce racemes two feet long. 



D. teretifolium. 



Strongyle. Stems slender, branched, clustered on a creeping rhizome 

 that sends forth a dense plexus of thread-like roots, by which the 

 plant is held firmly on the substance to which it is attached. Leaves 

 terminal, terete, curved, but sometimes straight, 4 — 10 inches long. 

 Flowers white, numerous, in loose dichotomous panicles ; sepals linear- 

 subulate ; petals linear, narrower than the sepals ; lip shorter than the 

 other segments, lanceolate, acuminate, reflexed with crisped margin, and 

 with three undulate raised lines on the disc. 



Dendrobium teretifolium, R. Br. Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. p. 333 (1810). Lindl. Gen. 

 et Sp. Orch. p. 91. Bot. Mag. t. 4711. Benth. Fl. Austral. VI. p. 285. 



A singular species, native of New South Wales and Queensland, 

 that has been known to science since the beginning of the present 

 century. Its first introduction to British gardens cannot be stated 

 with certainty, but the presumption is very strong that it was received 

 about the same time as Dendrobium' speciosum, that is, in 1823. It 

 was in cultivation in Messrs. Loddiges' Nursery in 1839,* and. at 

 Kew in 1852, whither it had been sent by Mr. Charles Moore, 

 Director of the Botanic Garden at Sydney.t The individual 

 flowers of D. teretifolium offer no especial attraction, but as they 

 are produced in great profusion the entire inflorescence gives a 

 pleasing impression. 



D. tetragonum. 



Stachtobium — Speciosce. Stems pendulous, acutely four-angled, 8 — 15 

 or more inches long, attenuated downwards into a slender terete foot- 

 stalk that is pseudo-bulbous at the base. Leaves in pairs at the 

 summit of the stems, spreading, oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, from 

 between which the few-flowered raceme is produced. Flowers of peculiar 



* Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1839. t Bot. Mag. sub. t. 4711. 



