VANDA. 89 



Flowers fragrant, 1^ inch across, on somewhat slender, slightly twisted 

 angulate pedicels (including ovary) IJ inch long; sepals and petals sub- 

 similar and sub-equal, oval-oblong obtuse, white with a delicate flush of 

 light rose-purple ; lip three-lobed, the small basal lobes sub-quadrate 

 with rounded distal end, white slightly tinted with rose ; the inter- 

 mediate lobe broadly clawed, the blade transversely oblong, emarginate, 

 reflexed at the sides, and traversed by three thickened longitudinal 

 central lines, amethyst-purple, much paler, sometimes white at the 

 margin ; spur saccate, compressed. Column white stained Avith purple. 



Vanda Amesiana, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. I. s. 3 (1887) p. 764 ; II. p. 586. ; Y. 

 (1889) p. 233. Williams' Orch. Alb. VII. t. 296. Bot. Mag. t. 7139. 



A very pretty recent addition to the genus introduced by Messrs. 



Low and Co., in the first instance accidentally (it is said) among 



other thing.s, but subsequently followed by a large importation. The 



habitat of the species is now known to be on the hills in the 



southern Shan States at 4,000 — 5,000 feet elevation, growing mostly 



on rocks fully exposed to the sun, but sometimes on trees in partial 



shade.* It flowers in December and January; the temperature at 



that season ranging from about 2° — 18° C. (36° — 65°) in the course 



of twenty-four hours, the ground being sometimes quite white with 



hoar-frost in the early morning (4 — 6 a.m.). In the dry season the 



plants are much shrivelled, as the deposit of dew on these hills is 



much lighter than in the equatorial zone. It is dedicated to the 



Hon. F. L. Ames, of North Easton, Massachusetts, a well-known 



patron of horticulture and an ardent amateur of orchids. Vanda 



Amesiana is remarkable for the unusual thickness and number of 



the aerial roots produced from the base and lower part of the stem, 



apparently at the expense of that organ, which, so far as cultural 



experience has yet reached, attains but very limited dimensions. 



The rose-purple colouring of the flowers is very variable, no two 



plants producing flowers exactly alike in this respect, being deeper 



in some, lighter in others, and even nearly disappearing in the 



horticultural variety called alha. 



V. Bensonii. 



Leaves 7 — 10 inches long, and |- — f inch broad, obli(|uely truncate, 

 and toothed at the apex. Racemes ascending, longer than the leaves, 

 10 — 15 or more flowered. Flower.s 2 inches in diameter, on white 



* This information reached us too late to admit of the habitat of this species and the allied 

 Vanda Kimhalliana which is associated with it, being indicated on the map illustrating the 

 geographical distribution of the genus. 



