92 BULBOPHYLLUM. 



names should for the present be bracketed in their chronological 

 order thus, Dendrobium Ainsworthii, D. splendidissimum, D. LeecManum, 



leaving it to future experience to decide whether the separate names 

 shall be retained, or whether the second, or third, or both, must sink 

 as synonyms of the first. The variety grandiflorum is not only the 

 largest of the forms obtained from the aureo-nobile crosses, but it is 

 also the most distinct ; this result is due to one of the finest forms 

 of each species having been selected for parents. 



D. Vannerianum. 



D. japonicum X D. Falcomri. 

 Flowers much resembling those of Dendrobium transparens ; all the 

 segments narrowed and pointed ; sepals white with narrow purple 

 margins ; petals and lip also white, the former with a purple apical 

 blotch, the latter with an oval blotch on the disc, and the apical area 

 also purple. 



Dendrobium Vannerianum, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. I. s. 3 (1887), p. 72. 

 Raised by Mr. Vanner, of Camden Wood, Chislehurst. 



BULBOPHYLLUM. 



Thouars, Orch. lies. Afr. 1822. Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Oreh. p. 50 (1831). Benth. et Hook. 

 Gen. Plant. III. p. 501 (1883). 



In the scientific arrangement of the Orchidese, Bulbophyllum follows 



close upon Ddndrobium, with which genus it is to some extent 



geographically associated.* Its geographical range, however, greatly 



exceeds that of Dendrobium, for the genus is not only represented 



by several species in Africa, especially at Sierra Leone, but also 



by a few species in Central and South America,t an instance 



somewhat rare among tropical orchids of the same genus being 



represented in both the Old and New World. By far the greatest 



number of the Bulbophyls are East Indian and Malayan, whence 



they spread into Australia and even New Zealand, where the minute 



Bulbophyllum pygmceum has its home. With so vast a geographical 



range, it is not surprising that the genus, as a whole, should be 



somewhat polymorphous, although as regards the greater number 



* Bulbophyllum differs chiefly from Dendrobium in the inflorescence, "the leafless scapes 

 arising from the rhizome either at the base of, or at a distance from the leaf-bearing stems or 

 pseudo-bulbs." — Bcnthmn, iu Jour. Linn. Soc. XVIII. p. 297. The curious Dendrobium 

 amplum, of the Khasia Hills, and the Bornean D. Treacher iatium are connecting links 

 between the two genera. 



+ Dr. Lindley (Fol. Orch.) separated seven Brazilian species from Bulbophyllum, and con- 

 stituted them a new genus which he called Didactyle, but ia this he is not followed by later 

 botanists. 



