PHAL^NOPSIS. 23 



he published in 1750. Two years later it was detected by Osbeck, on 

 New Island, at the western extremity of Java, and specimens preserved 

 by him were sent to Linnfeus, who described the plant in the first 

 edition of his Species Plantarurn, published in ] 753, under the name 

 of Epidendrum amahile* In 1798 it was introduced from the Moluccas 

 to the East India Company's botanic garden at Calcutta, as we are 

 informed by Dr. Roxburgh, who, when compiling his Flora indica, 

 published many years later, removed it from Epidendrum and placed 

 it under Swartz's genus, Cymbidium, to which it is much more nearly 

 allied. We next hear of it through Dr. Horsfield, who found it in 

 1809 in the district of Patjitan, on the south coast of Java, and again 

 some years later, through Dr. Blume, who detected it on the small 

 island of Nusa Kambangau, and who founded upon it the genus 

 Phalaenopsis, which he published in 1825 ; in that genus it is doubtless 

 destined to remain. 



The merit of introducing Phalcenopsis amabilis to British gardens 

 is due to Thomas Lobb, who sent plants from Java to our Exeter firm 

 in 1846 ; it flowered for the first time in this country in September 

 of the following year, in the collection of Mr. J. H. Schroeder, at 

 Stratford Green, on which occasion it received the name of Phalcenopsis 

 grandiflora from Dr. Lindley, a name that cannot be retained, for 

 reasons stated under P. Aphrodite, infra. Since its introduction by 

 Lobb, P. amabilis has been gathered in various parts of the great 

 Malayan Archipelago. All the collectors sent out by our firm into 

 that region mention it, and all agree in reporting that it is found 

 close to the sea- shore, sometimes high up on the trunks of lofty trees, 

 sometimes much lower down, even in positions where it was scarcely 

 beyond the reach of the salt spray. Burbidge found it in Labuan and 

 north Borneo, and noticed that the Bornean differed from the Java 

 form in its thinner leaves, less vigorous growth, and in the other 

 characters described above under the variety aurea. Curtis detected 

 it in north Celebes, where its flowers are smaller than the Java 

 form ; and Burke met with a small-flowered variety in south-east 

 New Guinea, growing on the thick aerial roots of the Screw-pine 

 (Pandanus). The geographical distribution of P. amabilis is there- 



* The type specimen sent by Osbeck to Liniifeus is still in an excellent state of preservation 

 in the Linnean Herbarium at Ijiirlington House. For an insfjcction of this most interesting 

 specimen we are indebted to the courtesy of tlic ofHcers of the Linucan Society. 



