76 ATCRIDES. 



it is extremely rare. The form cultivated under the name of A. 

 roseum has not even a varietal character to distinguish it from the 

 type. 



A. odoratum. 



Leaves 6 — 8 inches long and 1|— 2 inches broad. Racemes nodding, 



as long as or longer than the leaves. Flowers an inch long, fragrant; 



sepals and petals oval-oblong, obtuse, white with an amethyst-purple 



apical lilotch, the lateral sepals broader, and the petals narrower than the 



dorsal sepal ; lip funnel-shaped, prolonged at the base into a horn-like 



spur, three-lobed, the side lobes erect, roundish oblong, white, sometimes 



witli a faint tinge of light purple, and some scattered purple spots ; 



the intermediate lobe small, linear oblong with denticulate but sometimes 



entire margin, white with a broad purple median band. 



Aericles odoratum, Lour. Fl. cocliinch, p 525 (1790). Lindl. Gen. et Sp. 

 Orch. p. 239 (1832). Id. Journ. Linu. See. III. p. 41. Bot. Mag. t. 4139. Kegel's 

 Gartcnfl. VI. t. 272. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. p. 47. A. cornutum, Roxb. FI. 

 ind. III. p. 472 (1832). Bot. Reg. t. 1485. A. Dayanum, Hort. 



var. birraanicum.* 



Flowers smaller, the apical blotch on the sepals reduced to light 

 purple lines, the middle lobe of the lip narrower with a few teeth at 

 the margin. 



A. odoratum birmanicum Rchb. in Gard. Chroni II. s. 3. (1887), p, 272. 

 The longest known and the most widely distributed of all the 

 Aerides, the species upon which the genus was founded^ and the 

 first that was brought under cultivation in the glass-houses of 

 Europe. It was introduced to the Royal Gardens at Kew in the 

 year 1800 from China^ it is said, but more probably from Cochin 

 China in which country it had been discovered a few years previously 

 by Loureiro. It was subsequently obtained from Dacca by Dr. 

 Roxburgh, and later from Noakote, in Nepal, by Dr. Wallich, who 

 sent it to the Horticultural Society of London, in whose garden at 

 Chiswick it flowered in the summer of 1831, and it has been in 

 cultivation ever since. It is widely dispersed over north-east India, 

 Burmah, and the eastern peninsula. Many localities are recorded in 

 which it has been gathered, and its fragrant flower.'^ are everywhere 

 noted as being an especial attraction both to natives and strangers. 

 The variety hirmamcnm was recently introduced by Messrs, Low and 

 Co. through their collector Boxall. Another variety, in which the 

 middle lobe of the lip has a bi-cuspidate tip, is preserved in 



herbaria. 



* Not s€cn by u,%. 



