ARUNDINA. 77 



This Calanthe, the only hybrid in the Veratripoli^ section known 

 to us, will always be regarded with interest as being the first hybrid 

 orchid that flowered, although not the first seedling raised by hand. It 

 flowered for the first time at Exeter, in October, 1856, and was in due 

 course submitted to Dr. Lindley for examination and naming. He 

 accordingly named it after our then foreman, Mr. Dominy, " in order to 

 put upon permanent record the name of the first man who succeeded in 

 the operation of hybridising orchids." * 



ARUNDINA. 



Blume, Bijdr. p. 401 (1825). Benth. et Hook. Gen. Plant. III. p. 521 (1883). 



Aruudina includes about six species that are spread over eastern 

 Asia from southern China to the Malay Archipelago, and also over 

 parts of India and Ceylon. It is most nearly allied to Calanthe, from 

 which the spnrless labellum that enfolds the column at its bfisc, and 

 the reed-like leafy stems chiefly distinguish it. The most obvious 

 characters of the genus will be readily understood from the description 

 of ^. bambuscejol'ia given below, which has large handsome flowers, and 

 is occasionally met with in orchid collections. Another showy species, 

 A. densa, sent from Singapore by Cuming, to Messrs. Loddiges, in 

 whose nursery at Hackney it flowered in 1842, seems to have been 

 long since lost to cultivation ; and a third, A. speciosa, the species upon 

 which the genus was founded, said to be very handsome, has not yet 

 been introduced ; the other species known to science have smaller 

 and less showy flowers. 



The generic name Arundina, " reed-like," refers to the slender reed- 

 like stems, common to all the known species. 



Arundina bambussefolia. 



A terrestrial plant. Stems terete, erect, as thick as an ordinary writing 

 pencil, 2 — 4 feet high, pale green and leafy above. Leaves linear-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, 9 — 12 inches long, gradually smaller upwards, the upper ones 

 reduced to sheathing bracts. Peduncles terminal, short and few flowered. 

 Flowers 2 — 2|- inches across ; sepals and petals rosy lilac, the former 

 narrowly lanceolate, the latter ovate-oblong, acute ; lip broadly oval- 

 oblong, obscurely three - lobed, the side lobes coloured like the sepals 

 and petals, convolute over the column, recurved in front where they are 

 of a deeper colour ; the intermediate lobe open, bipartite, deep purple ; 

 disk white, fleshy, with two imdulated lamellae that are prolonged to 



* Gard. Chron. 1858, p. 4. 



