AERIFIES. 65 



larger and coarser pieces being placed at the bottom ; some cultivators 

 add pieces of charcoal, but we have never detected any advantage 

 derived from its use. The drainage should be surfaced with living 

 sphagnum that must be kept constantly moist. In January, or February 

 at the latest, the old sphagnum should be removed and replaced by new, 

 and those plants whose lowermost leaves have withered should be taken 

 out of the pots and their stems cut back at the base so far as to allow 

 the fresh leaves to be close to the sphagnum. 



Thrips and scale are great enemies of Aerides; the first can be kept in 

 check by fumigation and the use of tobacco powder, the latter ))y 

 sponging witli soft soap dissolved in te])id water. 



Synopsis of Species and Varieties. 

 Aerides Augustianum.* 



"Leaves arching, 6 — 7 inches long and 1| inch broad, dark green and 

 unequally bi-lobed at the apex. Eacemes arching, a little longer than 

 the leaves. Flowers of a light rosy shade, 1— 15 inch long; sepals 

 and petals roundish oblong, obtuse; lip three-lobed, the side lobes falcate, 

 oblong, rounded, or nearly truncate above, margin entire ; the front lobe 

 much longer, broadly oblong, margins crenulate, apex somewhat bilobed ; 

 spur longer than the front lobe, nearly straight." (R. A. Rolfe, in Gard. 

 Chron. VII. s. 3 (1890), p. 9.). 



Aerides Augustianum, Rolfe in Gard. Chron. loc. cit. and p. 233, icon. xyl. 

 Discovered in the Philippine Islands by M. Auf^uste Linden^ to 

 whom the species is dedicated^ and recently introduced by the 

 Societe anonyme d'Horticulture Internationale of Brussels. 



A. crassifolium. 



Leaves 6 — 7 or more inches long, and 1| — 2 inches broad, unequally 



bi-lobed at the apex. Peduncles longer than the leaves, loosely racemose. 



Flowers 1 — 1^ inch across vertically; sepals oblong, obtuse, the lateral 



two the broadest, bright rose-purple, paler at the base ; petals oval-oblong, 



coloured like the sepals ; lip three-lobed, the side lobes semi-lunate or 



crescent-shaped and coloured like the sepals and petals ; the intermediate 



lobe broadly ovate, obtuse, deep rose purple, at the base are two keels 



that are divergent in front ; spur bent, compressed, greenish at the tip. 



Aerides crassifolium, Kchb. and Parish in Trans. Linn. Soc. XXX. p. 145 (1873). 

 Rchb. in Gard. Chron. VII. (1877) y. 596 ; VIII. p. 492, icon. xyl. Warner's 

 Sel. Orch. III. t. 12. Godefroy's Orchidophile, 1885, p. 370. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. 

 Ind. VI. p. 46. 



* Not seen by us. 



