AE RIDES. 



79 



dotted with purple, the front lobe light purple, the spur white dotted 



with purple. 



A. suavissimum Ballantiueamun, Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. p. 47 (1890), A. 

 Ballantiueamim, Kchb. iu Gard. Chron. XXIV. (1885), p. 198. 



Although one of the most generally cultivated of the genus, the 



geographical distribution of Aerides suavissimum is very imperfectly 



known. It was first introduced from the Straits of Malacca by 



Messrs. Loddiges, in whose nursery it flowered in 1849, and it has 



since been imported by several horticultural firms, but we find no 



locality recorded besides the vague one given by Dr. Liudley here 



quoted from the Journal of the Horticultural Society of London.* 



Its affinity to A. odoratwn is so near that more definite characters 



are wanted to distinguish it from that species than the structure 



Aerides suavissimum. 



of the flower affords. From a horticultural point of view, however, 

 it is abundantly distinct from A. odoratam in its much longer 

 racemes of smtdler and differently coloured flowers that are produced 

 later in the season. The variability of A. suavissimu^n was observed 

 soon after its introduction, but the forms that have received 

 distinguishing names represent differences too trivial to require 

 separate description. The most distinct deviation from the type with 

 which we are acquainted is the variety described above, which has 

 been named in compliment to Mr. Ballantiue, the excellent gardener 

 to Baron Schroder, at The Dell, near Staines. 



A. Vandarum. 



Stems terete, slender, somewhat flexuose, several feet long. Leaves 

 terete, slender, 6 — 8 inches long, acuminate, with a sliallow sunk line 



* F. W. Burbidge saw it growing luxuriantly in Singapore, but it may liave been an 

 introduced plant tliere. (Gardens of the Sun, p. 18). 



