28 



PHAL^NOPSIS. 



the intermediate lobe generally deep purple, oblong, acute, with a 



bi-laniellate crest, below which is an oblong disk with two cirri on the 



basal side. Column slender, terete above, the stigmatic cavity large, 



elliptic in outline ; anther beaked. 



Phalienopsis Esmeralda, Kchb. iu Gard. Chron. II. (1874), p. 582. Jiev. hort. 

 1877, t. 1U7. Fl. May. n.s. t. 358. Williams' Orch. Alb. VII. t. 321. Hook, 

 f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. p. 31. P. antenuifera, Kchb. in Gard. Chrou. XI. (1879), 

 p. 398, Id. XVIII. (1882), j). 520. P. Regnieriana, Rchb. ia Gard. Chrou. II. 

 s. 3 (1887), p. 74t). P. Buyssoniaua, Echb. in Gard. Chron. IV. s. 3 (1888), 

 p. 295. 



Introduced from Cochin China in 1874 by M. Godefroy, of 

 Argenteuil, near Paris, who found the plant in two localities on 

 the island of Pluquoc in the Gulf of Siam, growing on isolated 

 rocks iu the midst of a small thicket of coniferous trees ; and in 

 Cambodia, between Pursat and Phnum-Bat, also growing upon bare 

 rocks, in no instance upon the trunks of trees. During the 

 dry season the plants lose their leaves, and all vegetation on the 

 rocks, on which they grow, disappears. It has since been gathered 

 by Curtis on one of the Langkawai islands, where it grows in 

 peat and sand at the foot of trees. 



PJialceiiopsis Esmeralda is distinguished from every other cultivated 

 species of Phalasnopsis by its erect, many-flowered racemes, the 

 flowers of which vary considerably in colour in different plants, and 

 especially by the presence of two cirri at the base of the lip and 

 not at the apex as in Euphal.enopsis, a character that separates the 

 species both from that section and from Staukoglottis. Although 

 the flowers are comparatively small, they are often brilliantly 

 coloured, and being produced in the late summer and autumn 

 months, they render the species a useful one in the orchid house at 

 that season. The colour variations are too numerous to admit of 

 separate notice; among them must be included the three forms 

 quoted in our literary references that were admitted by Reichenbach 

 to specific rank, but which we have reduced to synonyms. 



P. Lowii. 



Stem none, roots numerous, spreading. Leaves elliptic-oblong, 2 — 4 

 inches long, acute or emarginate, deciduous. Peduncles slender, sub- 

 erect or arching, didl purple and green, 10 — 15 or more inches long, 

 loosely paniculate upwards, usually few flowered, but in strong plants 

 many flowered. Plowers H — 2 inches in diameter; sepals elliptic-oblong 

 with a pale purple keel behind, the lateral two with the inner margin 

 reflexed, white with a laint llu5.h ut' amethyst-purple on the basal half ; 



