ARACHNANTIIK. 9 



moisture arising from the tank. In this situation the lowermost 

 breaks also flower, but which, when detached from the parent plant, 

 fail to do so. Moreover the old plant seems to suffer if it be 

 shortened in the manner sometimes practised on some species of 

 Vanda." * 



A. Olarkei. 



Stem as thick as an ordinary writing pencil, about a foot high in 



plants observed. Leaves linear-oblong, 3 — 6 inches long, gradually 



shorter upwards, unequally bilobate at apex. Peduncles ascending, 



2 — 3 flowered. Flowers 3 inches in diameter ■ sepals and petals blight 



chestnut-brown barred with light yellow, the sepals linear-oblong, 



cuneate at the base, the lateral two falcately curved ; petals similar 



but narrower; lip three-lobed, a little shorter than the other segments, 



the basal lobes erect, rotund, light yellow, almost white, streaked with 



red, the front lobe fleshy, "broadly roundish with a small lobule at 



the apex," chestnut-brown with 7 — 9 radiating white keels, of which 



the middle one is the broadest. 



Arachnanthe Clarkei, Rolfe in Gard. Chron. IV. s. 3 (1888), p. 567. Bot. Mag. t. 

 7077. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. p. 28. Esmeralda Clarkei, Rchb. in Gard. 

 Chron. XXVI. (1886), p. 552. 



Discovered in 1875 in the Sikkim Himalaya^ at 6,000 feet 

 elevation, by Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.R.S., the excellent Indian 

 botanist, and introduced by Messrs. Low and Co., of Clapton, in 

 1885 or 6 ; it flowered for the first time in this country in the 

 autumn of 1886, in the collection of the late Mr. John Day, at 

 Tottenham. Its near affinity to Arachnanthe Gathcartii was recognised 

 by the late Professor Reichenbach, who referred it to his genus 

 Esmeralda as E. Clarkei, but for the reason already stated, that name 

 cannot be accepted. As in A. Gathcartii, the labellum is a most 

 curious organ ; it is articulated to the foot of the column in such a 

 way that the slightest touch imparts to it an oscillatory motion, 

 A. Clarkei flowers in September and October. 



The conditions under wliich Arachnanthe Clarkei grows in the Sikkim 

 Himalaya are thus described by a correspondent of the Gardeners 

 Chronicle; they afford, therefore, indications for its cultural treatment. 

 "It occurs on a thickly wooded crest or ridge, at an altitude of about 

 6,000 feet, where sun and wind have free jilay amidst its surroundings, 

 drenched with cool rain and driving mists during the wet season, exposed 

 to a fair amount of sunshine during the remainder of the year, and 

 visited by a sprinkling of snow at the commencement of the new year. 

 At this altitude the temperature during the hottest month of the year, 



* Communicated to the Gardemrs' Chronicle, TIL s. 3 (1888), p. 106, by Mr. F. Ross. 



