PHAL^NOPSIS. 43 



dorsal sepal ; Mr. Miirton's (Id. X. (1878), p. 234), light lemon-yellow 

 with a purple blotch at the base of the lateral sepals, the base of the 

 column and middle lobe of the lip stained with the same colour. 

 Phalcenopsis viulacea was discovered by Teijsman, near Palembang, 

 in Sumatra^ and was sent by him to the Botanic garden at Leyden 

 in 1859, and at the same time to the collection of M. Willinck, at 

 Amsterdam. It was first described in the publication quoted above by 

 M. Witte, the Superintendent of the Leyden garden, where it flowered 

 for the first time in Europe in 1861, and two years later it was again 

 described by its discoverer in the list of new plants cultivated in the 

 Botanic garden at Buitenzorg, in Java; this description is the first 

 usually quoted by botanists, Teijsman being undoubtedly the author 

 of the name. Nothing more appears to have been heard of it till it 

 was sent by Mr. Murton, of the botanic garden at Singapore, to 

 Mr. M. H. Williams, of Tredrea in Cornwall, in whose collection it 

 flowered in 1878, and later in the same year a plant from the same 

 source flowered in our Chelsea nursery. Two years afterwards we 

 received a consignment of plants from southern Sumatra, which had 

 been collected by Curtis, who found them growing under the same 

 conditions as P. sumatrana, with which P. violacea is sometimes 

 associated. 



The colour of the flowers of this species varies considerably, especially 

 as regards the area covered by the purple ; besides the sub- or colour 

 varieties noted above, several others not seen by us have received 

 distinguishing names. 



HYBRID PHAL^NOPSES. 



The existence of natural hybrids among Phalsenopses was first 

 broached by Dr. Lindley in 1853, when a plant which had been 

 imported by us from the Philippine Islands along with Phalcenopsis 

 Aphrodite, was found upon flowering to combine the characters of 

 that species with those of P. rosea; he thence surmised that it 

 might be a natural mule between them, and he accordingly named 

 it P. intermedia* Subsequently other forms bearing marks of 

 hybridity were introduced from the same rich Phaltenopsis region; 

 some of them evidently derived from the same parentage as the 

 * i'axtou's Floicer Garden, III. \}. 163. 



