14 PHAIUS. 



Scapes erect, 12 — 18 or niore inches high, sheathed by a whitish bract at 

 each joint and terminating in a 5 — 7 flowered raceme. Flowers 2 — 2| 

 inches in diameter ; sepals and petals white, elliptic-oblong, acuminate, with 

 a depressed line above, slightly carinate beneath ; li]i three-lobed, the side 

 lobes large, snb-orbicular, meeting above the column and forming a wide- 

 mouthed funnel, orange yellow much spotted with red-purple and studded 

 with white hispid hairs ; middle lobe sub-quadrate, emarginate, with a 

 crisped edge and deep yellow callus on the disk consisting of three broad 

 denticulate ridges, Avhite blotched with rose ; below the callus is a dense tuft 

 of sidphur-yelloAV hairs. Column clavate, arched, white above, purplish 

 in front. 



Phaius tuberculosus, Blume, Mus. Bot. II. p. 181 (1856), Rchb. in Gard. Chron. 

 XV. (1881), p. 423. Williams' Orcli. Alb. II. t. 91. The Garden, XXVI. (1884), 

 t. 449. Limodorum tuberculosum, Thoiiars, Orcli. lies d'Afr. t. 35. Bletia tubercu- 

 losa, Spreng. Syst. PI. III. p. 744 (1826). Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 123 (1831). 



The most striking of all the species of Phaius. The flowers are 

 not only of remarkable beauty, but also of singular structui*e and 

 very difllcult to describe. Although so recently introduced to British 

 gardens, it was known as an herbarium specimen, in the early part 

 of the present century, to the French naturalist Dupetit Thenars, 

 and to the German botanist Sprengel, and through them the species 

 .became known to Dr. Liudley, who, following Sprengel, described it 

 in his Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants under the name of 

 Bletia tuberculosa. Blume subsequently referred it to Phaius, the 

 correctness of which has since been confirmed by its hybridising with 

 the Indian species, Phaius Wallichii. The plants at present in cultivation 

 were collected in Madagascar by the brothers Humblot, and through 

 them introduced by Messrs. Sander and Co., in 1880. P. tuberculosus 

 flowered for the first time in this country in the collection of 

 Sir Trevor Lawrence, at Burford Lodge, in the spring of the following 

 year. 



Cultural Note. — Considerable difficulty has been experienced in growing 

 and flowering this most interesting orchid, and much disappointment has 

 ensued therefrom. One of the most successful instances that has come 

 under our notice is that of the plants in the collection of Mr. A. Sillem, 

 at Lawrie Park, Sydenliam, where they receive the following treatment : — 

 " The pots in which they are cultivated are large enough to allow the 

 roots to spread freely in all directions; they are first filled to two-thirds 

 of their depth with broken crocks and charcoal, then a layer of peat ; 

 on this the plants are placed, and around the stems the pots are filled to 

 the brim with living sphagnum. By this arrangement the plants are in 

 the same condition as they Avoidd be if growing on the surface of 

 a bog (and this is probably their natural position) ; they can also be 



