86 vaNda. 



VANDA. 



R. Br. in Bot. Reg. t. 506 (1820). Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 215 (1832). Benth. et 

 Hook. Gen. Plant. III. p. 578 (1883). 



The following synopsis includes all the species known to us to be in 

 cultivation^ and among them are assuredly some of the finest orchids 

 ever introduced. Seven or eight other species are also known to 

 science, but none of them can be said to possess any especial attrac- 

 tion for the horticulturist. Perhaps the most striking feature in 

 Vanda, from a horticultural point of view, is the remarkable range 

 of colour observable in the flowers of the different species, and even 

 in varieties of the same species, surpassing in this respect every 

 other genus of cultivated orchids. With the exception of the 

 brilUant red seen in the allied genus, Renanthera, well nigh every 

 variety of colour is represented throughout the Vandas; the tessela- 

 tion of the floral segments of the type species and its immediate 

 allies is also an attractive feature. Another property that renders 

 the Vandas valuable as decorative plants is the persistency of their 

 flowers, those of some of the species continuing fresh for upwards 

 of three months. 



The essential characters of the genus are seen chiefly in the form 

 of the labellum and in its attachment to the column; these characters 

 may be thus technically expressed : — 



The lip is affixed to the base of the column ; it is saccate at its 



base or obtusely spurred ; the lateral lobes are sometimes large, sometimes 



reduced to minute auricles, rarely ; the middle lobe is variable in 



form, the disk of which is fleshy and usually ridged or lamellate. 



Even when divested of those species which do not conform to 



these characters, and which have long been known in gardens as Vandas, 



but are now referred to other genera,* Vanda is still a polymorphous 



genus whose limits it is difficult to define, and which presents much 



that is perplexing to the systematist; thus aberrant forms are seen 



in Vanda Sanderiana which has a close affinity with the Arachnanthes, 



V. parviflora is better known as an Aerides, V. densijiora and V. 



violacea may with equal right be placed under Saccolabium, to which 



genus they are, in fact, referred in this work. 



In their vegetation the Vandas resemble the Aerides except that 



* See Stauropsis, Arachnanthe, and Saccolabium, 



