b ARACHNANTHE. 



the base of the column, and motile, not affixed to it as in Vanda. 

 To these must be added A. Glarhei, a fine j-pecies recently intro- 

 duced from the Sikkim Himalaya, but which is still comparatively rare 

 in British gardens. These three species are the only Arachnanthes 

 at present in cultivation. 



The genus was founded by Blume on the Linnean Epidendrum 

 Flos-aeris, which he described and figured in his Riirnphia under the 

 name of Arachnanthe moschifera, a curious orchid, widely distributed 

 over the Malay Archipelago, and formerly, if not at present, 

 cultivated in Japan, where it was noted and figured by Kaempfer 

 in his Amoenitates* towards the end of the seventeenth century. 

 To this, the type species, Mr. Bentham added the two species first 

 named above, and two others — not in cultivation — previously 

 referred to Renanthera by Lindley and Reichenbach ; \ and sub- 

 sequently another species, discovered by the late Dr. Maingay in 

 Malacca, has been added by Sir J. D. Hooker.J The number of 

 species now included in the genus is six. 



The generic name is derived from apayj't] (arachne), "a spider,'' 

 and aviioQ (anthos)," a flower," from a fancied resemblance of the 

 markings on the flower of the type species to the cobweb of a 

 spider. 



Arachnanthe Cathcartii. 



Stem as thick as an ordinary writing pencil, several feet long, leafy 

 along the distal half or more.§ Leaves linear-oblong, 6 — 8 inches long, 

 unequally two-lobed at the apex, recurved, very leathery. Racemes 

 stoutish, longer than the leaves, 3 — 5 or more flowered. 

 Flowers distant, 3 inches in diameter ; sepals and petals similar and 

 sub-equal, orbicular-oblong, concave, pale yellow, crossed by numerous 

 Avavy, often confluent red-brown bands ; lip three-lobed, the side lobes 

 small, roundish oblong, incurved, white streaked with red ; the inter- 

 mediate lobe yellow, reniform with obscurely dentate margin, the centre 

 very thick with crenate border : calli two-ribbed, fleshy, pale yellow 



* Notes and sketches of what the traveller saw, aud which he afterwards published in 

 a book under this name. 



i RenanfMra Sidingii, Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 217, and Rchb. Xen. Orch. II. 

 ]). 41, t. 113. R. hiliuguis, Rchb. Xen. Orch. I. p. 7, t. 4. 



t Flora of British India, VI, p. 28. 



§ " This plant as well as Arachnanthe Clarkci is distinctly pendulous in habit, an 

 never under any conditions does it assume an erect position in the Himalayan forests.'' 

 "K. P." in Gard. Chron. Vlll. s. 3 (1890), p. 269. 



