68 AERIDE8. 



dorsal sepal ; lip three-lobed, the lateral lobes falcate or crescent-shaped, 

 spreading, light amethyst-purple ; the front lobe broadly obovate, some- 

 what saddle-shaped, emarginate with denticulate margin, and with two 

 shallow median keels above, deep amethyst-purple ; spur short, compressed, 

 greenish. 



Aeriilf-s fa'oatnm. Lindl. in Paxt. Fl. Oanl. ]I. p 142 (18n2). R(!hb. in Walp. Ann. 

 VI. p. 897. Xm. On-h. I. p. 220, t. 92. (Jard. Climn. III. s. 3 (18S8), p. 744. 

 Ho>k. r. Fl. Brit In.l. VI p 46. A. expansum, R.hb. in Gard. Chron. XVIII. 

 (18S2), p. 40. A. LarpentiB, Hort. A. MeuJelii, Hort. 



var — HouUetianum. 



LeaA'es a little longer and narrower. Racemes shorter and denser, 



the flowers smaller in all their parts, light tawny yellow Avith an apical 



purple spot on each segment, the margin of the front lobe of the 



lip fimbriate rather than denticulate, and the median keels shorter. 



A. falcatum HouUetianum, supra. A. HouUetianum, Rchb. in Gard. Chi'on. 

 1872, p. 1194. Id, V. (1878) p. 756. Xen. Orch. III. t. 204. A. Picotianum, 

 Hort. French. 



var.— Leonise. 



Leaves more distant. Flowers larger with front lobe of the lip a 



little broader ; sepals and petals white with a small amethyst-purple 



apical spot, and some dots of the same colour towards the base of the 



petals and lateral sepals ; the side lobes of the lip dotted and marked 



with light amethyst-purple, the central and apical area of the front 



lobe deeper purple, the remainder white dotted like the other segments. 



A. falcatum Leoni;e, supra. A. expansum Leonise, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. XVIII. 

 (1882), p. 40. Williams' Orch. Alb. VII. t. 328. A. Leonite, Godefroy's Orchidophile, 

 1885, p. 301 (Leonsei). 



This species first became known to science and to horticulture in 

 1847^ when a plants whose origin is not recorded, flowered in the 

 garden of Sir George Larpent, at Koehampton, and was exhibited 

 by his gardener at the Chiswick Show of the Horticultural Society 

 of London, under the provisional name of Aerides Larpentce, the 

 name by which it is still best known in many orchid collections. 

 Five years later the species was described by Dr. Lindley in 

 Paxton's Flower Garden as Aerides falcatum, and again in 1858 by 

 Reiclienbach in his Xenia Orchidacea, its origin being unknown to 

 both botanists. It has since been imported under various names 

 from Arrocau and Upper Burmah. Its habitat is thence known, 

 that of the typical A. falcatum being at no great distance from 

 Akyab. 



The variety HouUetianum first appeared in 1868 in the nursery of 

 the late M. Luddemann, at Paris, at whose request it was named 

 by Reichenbach four years later when better materials for description 



