18 CYMBIDIUM. 



inhabiting the jungle at a short distance from the ground. Its 

 climatic range is considerable : — At Kollong on the Khasia Hills 

 the rainfall from April to November is about 90 inches, and the 

 daily temperature is 19°— 21° C. (65°— 70° F.), rarely rising to 

 26° C. (80° F.) ; from November to April the season is almost 

 rainless, and the temperatuie in January and February falls below 

 zero C. (32° F.) nearly every night. In Sikkim the rainfall during 

 the same period reaches almost 150 inches, and in the summer 

 months the temperature often rises to 32° 0. (90° F.) ; the winter 

 mouths are not quite rainless and the temperature never sinks to 

 the freezing point. 



Gijmhidium giganteum was first discovered by Dr. Wallich in 1821, 

 and subsequently introduced by him into British gardens. It was 

 sent to Chatsworth in 1837 by Gibson, who found it on the Khasia 

 Hills ''in great abundance in the thick umbrageous forests growing on 

 the trunks of trees, and especially upon those which had began to 

 show tokens of decay ; the specimens which occupied the hollows 

 of old trees partially filled up with decomposing vegetable matter, 

 always presenting the most luxuriant and healthy appearance.^' The 

 illustrations quoted above show that the flowers vary considerably 

 in depth of colouring. 



0. grandiflorum. 



Leaves 20 — 25 inches long, ligulate, acute, dilated l)elow into ribbed 



and grooved sheaths striated with two shades of green. Scapes very 



robust, sheathed below by long and narrow acuminate bracts ; racemes 



nodding, 7 — 12 floAvered. Flowers the largest in the genus, 4 — 5 



inches across ; sepals and petals similar and sub-equal, oblong, acute, 



green, the petals a little narrower than the sepals; lip three-lobedj 



triangular, acute, ciliolate at the margin, light yellow with lines of 



red-purple dots on the inner side ; the intermediate lobes cordate, crisped 



and fringed at the margin, yellow spotted with red-purple ; between 



the side lobes are two ciliated lamellae as long as the lobes themselves. 



Column terete and green above, spotted with red l)elow the stigma. 



Cymbidiura grandiflorum, Griff. Notul. III. p. 342 (1851), and Icon. Plant. Asiat. t. 

 321. Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. VI. p. 12. Gard. Chron. XI. s. 3 (1892), p. 267. C. 

 Hookerianum, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. 1866, p. 7. Batem. in Bot. Mag. t. 5574. C. 

 giganteum (in part), Lindl. in Journ. Linn. Soc. III. p. 29. 



An old denizen of British gardens, but which has never received 



much attention from the cultivators of orchids, chiefly on account 



of the prevailing green colour of its flowers, which are also slow 



