VANDA. 87 



there is much less uniformity of habit among them. Some of the 

 species are slow growing, and never in a wild state attain the dimensions 

 of their more robust congeners, Vanda tricolor, V. ccerulea, etc., the 

 most obvious part of whose life-history is essentially the same as an 

 Aerides. V. teres is a scandent plant scrambling to the top of high 

 trees, while V. Hookeriana of similar aspect is of much lower stature, 

 and creeps over the low jungle growth, or affixes itself to the stems of 

 a species of Pandanus (Screw-Pine). 



No satisfactory sectional divisions of Vanda have yet been established. 

 Dr. Lindley distributed the species into five sections in his monograph 

 of the genus in Folia Orchidacea, published in 1853, of which the 

 first, FiBLDiA, has by general consent been removed from it. The 

 remaining four were adopted by Reichenbach a few years later when 

 revising the genus for Walper's Annales Botanices, but they are 

 separated by very artificial characters except perhaps two which Sir J. 

 D. Hooker has retained in the Flora of British India, viz., Euvanda 

 and Anota, the last of which is chiefly distinguished from the true 

 Vandas by the more densely flowered racemes, and by the absence of 

 side lobes in the labellum. A sectional division into flat and round- 

 leaved species as in Aerides (Planifoli^ and Teretifoli^) breaks 

 down in V. Amesiana and V. Kimhalliana, which are transitional 

 species as regards the form of their leaves. 



The name Vanda was communicated to Dr. Robert Brown, the 

 founder of the genus, by the eminent oriental scholar and linguist, 

 Sir William Jones. It is a Sanscrit word of rather wide import, 

 for it seems to have been used for the common Vanda of Bengal 

 and north-east India (Vanda, Boxhurghii), and also for any orchid of 

 similar habit, as Aerides odoratum ; it was also applied to a 

 parasitical plant, as the Loranthus or Mistletoe. The genus was 

 selected by Lindley as the type of one of the fundamental (tribal) 

 divisions of the order (Vande^e). 



Geographical distribution. — The geographical distribution of the 

 Vandas will be best understood by a reference to the map illustrating 

 that of Phalaenopsis and Aerides, to which we have also added 

 Vanda. Certain peculiarities in the distribution of these genera are 

 worthy of notice ; thus, the Phalaenopses are almost invariably 

 insular or littoral ; nearly all the most distinct types of Aerides are 

 widely dispersed ; but the species of Vanda, with the exception of 

 Vanda parviflora and V. Roxburghii, are very local. It is a curious 

 fact, too, that where Aerides is abundant a Vanda is to be found 

 not far off ; V. Sanderiana is associated with Aerides Laivrencem in 



