8 ARACHNANTHE. 



Cathcartii has occasionally had a place iu many orchid collections 

 both iu Europe and Ainericaj and the estimation in which it has 

 been held by horticulturists has found expression in the numerous 

 coloured plates of it that have appeared in gardening publications. 

 Jt usually flowers in the early months of the year, but it is not 

 an uncommon occurrence for its racemes to be produced much 

 later, and even iu opposite seasons. The species is dedicated to 

 the memory of Mr. James F. Cathcart, of the Indian Civil Service, 

 an ardent amateur naturalist, and one of the earliest explorers of 

 the rich flora of the eastern Himalaya.* For materials for 



description and figui'ing we are indebted to Mons. le Due de Massa, 

 of the Chateau de Fraucouville, near Luzarches, in France, and 

 Mr. Charles J. Lucas, of Waruham Court, near Horsham. 



Cultural Note. — Arachnanthe Cathcartii has always been a difficult 

 plant to import alive, and even when it survives the voyage to 

 Europe the most solicitous care on the part of the cultivator frequently 

 fails to preserve it alive for any length of time in the glass houses 

 of this country. At least two circumstances may be adduced as 

 probable causes of failure : the impossibility of approximately imitating 

 the climatic conditions under which it thrives in its native home, 

 and the delicate constitution of the plant itself derived from its 

 environment, by which it is deprived of the hardening influence of 

 direct sunlight. " Thickly wooded gorges iu close proximity to streams 

 where light is of the most sombre description, quite beyond the 

 warming influence of the sun, and Avhere a continual high state of 

 humidity during the whole year is maintained, are one and all 

 necessary to its existence . . . From May till October the forests 

 are maintained in a constant state of saturation by a drenching and 

 almost continuous rainfall, while, during the other half of the year, a 

 high degree of humidity is kept up by the splashing of the stream 

 a few feet off, and the dense canopy of foliage overhead that checks 

 evaporation."! Hence it is that good specimens, growing freely and 

 flowering regularly, are rarely seen in British orchid collections, and 

 therefore it is with much satisfaction that we are enabled to record an 

 instance of the successful cultivation of this orchid in the garden 

 of Sir George Macleay at Pendell Court, Bletchingley. Here " the 

 plant is trained against a wall partly over a water tank in a small 

 stove, where the temperature during winter is about 12" — 15° C. 

 (55° — 60° F.), and the Avail always more or less damp from the 



*An account of his life and labours is given by Sir J. D. Hooker in the introduction to 

 his III list ations of Himalayan Plants. 



f "R. P." in Gard. Chron. VITI. s. 3 (1890), p. 269. 



