74 AERIDES. 



As a species its nearest affinities are Aerifies multiflorum and A. 

 crispum, between which it is intermediate, but approaching nearer 

 the first named ; the flowers are smaller than those of A, crisjjum., 

 with the almost flat labellum of A. multiforum. 



A. mitratum. 



Stems very sliort in the cultivated plants, heaving at their apex three 



— five or more semi-terete leaves 7 — 15 inches long, deeply channelled on 



the upper side. Racemes usually from below the leaves and shorter than 



they, ascending or sub-erect, many flowered, Flowers f inch long, shortly 



pedicelled ; sepals and petals sub-equal, broadly oval-oblong, white tinted 



with mauve-purple at the apex; lip "broadly trulliform, obtuse with a 



horn-like projection on each side at the base," amethyst-purple ; spur 



sbort, nuich compressed, pmjecting backwards, mitre-shaped. 



iVerides mitratum, Rchb. in Bot. Zeit. 1864, p. 415. \A. in Gard. Chron. I. s. 3 

 (1887), p. 834. Bot. Mag. t. 5728. 



An attractive species, first introduced by Messrs. Low and Co., in 



1864, from Moulmein, through the Rev, C. S. Parish. A single 



plant only survived the voyage, which was acquired by the late Mr. 



John Bay, in whose collection at Tottenham it flowered for the first 



time in April, 1868. The plant subsequently died and the species 



became lost to cultivation till the autumn of 1886, when it was 



re-introduced by Mr. Shuttleworth, of Clapham^ and shortly afterwards 



by Messrs. Sander and Co., through their collector Fdrsterman. 



The specific name refers to the fancied resemblance of the spur of 



the lip to a bishop's mitre; its tapering cylindric leaves place it 



in the section Teretifoli.*;. 



A multiflorum. 



Leaves 7 — 9 inches long, ^ — | inch broad. Peduncles longer than 



the leaves, racemose, but sometimes branched near the base. Flowers 



f inch long, the upper sepal and petals oval-oblong, the basal area white 



with 2 — 3 or more purple spots, the apical area light amethyst-purple ; 



the lateral sepals broader, sub-orbicular, white with a faint light purple 



stain ; lip cordate obtuse, slightly convex above, light amethyst-purple, 



deeper along the middle : spur short, straiglit, comjn'essed laterally. 



Column with two nninded auricles on the foot. 



Aerides multiHorum, Eoxb. PL of the coast of Covomandel II J. p. 68, t. 271 (18iy). 

 Id. Fl. ind. III. p. 475. Echb. iu Walp. Ann. VI. p. 896. Morren. Belg. Hort. 

 1876, p. 286. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. p. 44. A. affiue, Wallich's Cat. No. 7316. 

 Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 239 (1832). Id. Serf. Oreh. t. 15. Id. in Jonrn. Linn. 

 Soc. III. p. 41. /.'o/. il/rt^. t. 4049. De Puydt, ics Orc/i. t. 2. A. roseiun, Paxt. i^/. 

 Gard. II. t. 60 (1852). Uhis. Hort. III. t. 88 (1856^. "Warner's Sel. Orch. III. 

 t. 22 (superbum). A. Iri^irounn. Klotzsch in Allfjeni. Garteiiz. 1855, ]'. 177. 



