Plate 192. 



VANDA BENSON! 



Colonel Benson's 



Gen. Char. [Vide supr a , V hkn^ 125.) 



f 



% 



r 



Vanda Bensoni; foliis canalicuLatis oblique in^quall-dentatis racemis erectis n'gldis mnltifloris 



duplo brevioribus, floribus distantibus pedicellis subaequalibus, sepalis potalisque minoribuf? 

 unguiculatis obovatis obtusls intus guttulatis (iiec tessellatis) , labello convoxo ovato disco 

 trilamellato apice alte bifido subrenifbrmi, auriculis ad basin trlangularibus obtusiuticuIiH, 

 calcare conico obtuso. 



Vanda Bensoni. Bateman, mss. Bot. Mag. t. 5611. 



This slegaiit addition to our list of Vandas was discovered in Rangoon and sent to 

 Messrs. Veitch by that zeaknis naturalist Colonel Benson, after Avhom I have great 

 pleasure in naming it. It flowered at Chelsea shortly after its arrival in the summer 

 of the present year (1866), though the spikes were of course inferior to those produced 

 m its own country, some of the latter — which are now in the Kew herbarium — liaving 

 been upwards of half a yard long, and carried as many as fifteen flowers. The length 

 of its spikes, the absence of all tessellation, the spotting and yellow colour of the inside 

 of the flowers, are among the marks that distinguish the species from K Bojchurghu 

 and V. concolor, to which it is nearly allied. It appears to be a very free grower. 



Descr. Plant a foot or more high, bearing a compact mass of distichous channelled 

 coriaceous leaves, which are obliquely and unequally toothed, a span or more long. 

 Flower-spikes upright, many-flowered, much longer than the leaves. Pedicels about an 

 inch long, white. Flowers not closely arranged, about two inches across : the sepals 

 and petals (which are smaller than the sepals) unguiculate, obovate, obtuse, white on 

 the outside, and of a yellowish-green on the inside, where they are marked with nume- 

 rous reddish-brown dots. Lip about the same length as the sepals, with two small, 

 triangular, rather blunt side-lobes or auricles at its base, from in front of which it is 

 ovate, convex, traversed by three lamellae, and terminated by a kidney-shaped, broad, 

 bifid apex, which is of a beautiful violet colour, while the auricles and conical spur at 

 the base are white. 



Fig. 1. Lip and column, seen sideways. 2. Ditto, seen in front :— magnified. 



