22 PHAL^NOPSIS. 



foliage of the plants ; the washing of the leaves with a sponge dipped 

 in tepid water is an efficacious remedy that should be used as often as 

 thrips are detected. A moilerate fumigation may also be used with 

 good results, provided the operation is performed when the foliage is 

 dry. The house should be fumigated towards evening, and again on 

 the following morning before it is "damped down." Cockroaches 

 occasionally gnaw through the thick roots of vigorous-growing specimens, 

 and should be got rid of. Slugs lurk in the fresh sphagnum, and grow 

 with surprising rapidity, and with corresponding voracity ; they should 

 be assiduously sought for and destroyed, as the mischief they do is 

 sometimes irrei)arable. 



Sy>30psis op Species and Vaeieties. 



Phalsenopsis amabilis. 



Leaves broadly obovate-oblong, 6 — 12 inches long, sometimes attaining 

 greater dimensions under cultivation, the smaller leaves emargiuate, the 

 larger ones mucronate. Peduncles of variable length, green tinged with 

 dull i»urple, ascending or arching, panicled, but sometimes racemed, many- 

 flowered. Flowers 3 — 4 inches across the petals ; sepals and petals white, 

 the dorsal sepal elliptic-oblong, the lateral two lanceolate-oblong, oblique ; 

 petals very broad, sub-rhomboidal, contracted at the base ; lip three-lobed, 

 the side lobes incurved towards the column, clawed, sub-quadrate, rounded 

 on the apical sides, yellow at the base, spotted with red on the claw ; 

 the front lobe linear-hastate, with two basal auricles and two long apical 

 tendrils, curled inwards ; crest two-lobed, yellow spotted with red. Column 

 short, sub-clavate. 



Phalrenopsis amabilis, Blume, Bijdi-. p. 294, t. 44 (1825). Id. Rumphia, IV. t. 194 

 and 199. Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 213 (1832.) P. grandiflora, Lindl. in Card. 

 Chron. 1848, p. 39, icon. xyl. Bot. Mag. t. 5184. De Puydt, Les. Orch. t. 34. 

 Williams' Orch. Alb. VI. t. 277. Epidendrum amabile, L. Sp. PI. ed. I. p. 953 (1753). 

 Cymbidium amabile, Roxb. Fl. Ind. III. p. 457 (1832). 



van— aurea. 



Peduncles greenish yellow. Flowers usually larger than the typical 



form, with broader sepals and petals ; the front half of the lateral lobes 



of the lip, with the entire front lobe, including the cirri, light yellow. 



P. amabilis aurea, Kolfe in Gard. Chron. XXVI. (1886), p. 212. P. grandiflora 

 anrea, Warner's Sel. Orch. II. t. 7. Sander's Reichenhachia I. t. 11. 



The botanical history of this lovely orchid is sketched by- 

 Mr. R. A. Rolfe in the second volume of the Gardeners' Chronicle of 

 1886, p. 168, from which we extract the following : — 



It appears to have been first discovered in the island of Amboina, 

 by Rumphius, who gave a description and figure of it under the 

 name of Angrcecum albuyn majus, in his Herharmm amboinense, which 



