AERfDES. 81 



SO far as we are awaie, in cultivation. The materials for figuring 

 were supplied by Mr. Parker, of Hornsey, in whose nursery it 

 flowered in February, 1857, and this was probably the first occasion 

 of its flowering in this country. 



Aerides VanJamm occurs in the Sikkim Himalaya, at 5,000 feet 

 elevation ; also on the Khasia Hills at 4 — 5,000 feet elevation, and 

 in I^funipur at about the same altitude. It is thence a sub-tropical 

 plant, a circumstance of which cultivators should take note. 



A. virens. 



Leaves 7 — 10 inches long and 1 — 1| inch broad. Peduncles longer 



than the leaves, racemose along the distal two-thirds. Flowers fragrant, 



exceeding an inch across vertically ; sepals and petals broadly oval, 



obtuse, white with a bright purple apical l)lotch, the lateral sepals broader 



and the petals narrower than the dorsal sepal ; lip someAvhat resembling 



a ram's horn, deeply three-lobed, the side lobes much the largest, oblong, 



erect with the outer margin ajipressed to the column, white si:)otted with 



purple below and around the green-tii^ped spur; the front lobe small, 



oblong, entire, but sometimes bi-dentate at the apex, incurved towards the 



beak of the anther, sometimes wholly purple, sometimes white with a 



median purple band. 



Aerides virens, Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1843, misc. No. 48. Id. 1844, t. 41. Paxt. Fl. 

 Gard. II. sub. t. 66. Williams' Orch. Alb. IV. t. 160. Id. VIl. t. 298 (Ellisii). 



Introduced in 1843 by Messrs. Loddiges from Java, where it is 

 one of the commonest of orchids. Around Batavia it has established 

 itself on the Tamarind trees that were planted by the early Dutch 

 settlers to shade the roads. During the short dry season these trees 

 lose some of their foliage, the Aerides are then partially exposed 

 to direct sunlight, but during the remainder of the year they are 

 in shade. 



Compared with Aerides odoratum, of which A. virens is scarcely 

 other than a geographical form — the leaves are generally (not 

 always) a little longer and narrower, more distant and more decurved- 

 the racemes are longer with the flowers more distantly placed along 

 the rachis ; the flowers are a little larger with larger and britrhter 

 purple spots. 



