DENDEOBIUM FORMOSUM GIGANTEUM. 



[Plate 308.] 



JVative of Bwnnah. 



Epiphytal. Fsciidobulhs stem-like, stout, erect, terete, and jointed, becoming 

 furrowed with age, from a foot to eighteen inches hio^li, enclosed in the membraneous 



bases of the leaves, which when young are clothed with a profusion of short, black 

 hairs. Leaves distichous, oblong-lanceolate obtuse, unequally bilobed at the apex, 

 bright green. Scape short, four or five-flowered, produced from the apex, and also 

 from the axils of the leaves nearest the point of the pseudobulb. Flowers pure white, 

 stained with orange -yellow, deliciously fragrant, and about five inches across ; sepals 

 small, ligulate acute, produced behind into a conical spur ; petals very much broader 

 than the sepals, and like them pure white, obovate and apiculate ; lip large, obovate, 

 dilated and retuse, white stained on the disc with a broad blotch of rich orange, 

 which is continued to the base in a raised central line. Column short, obtuse, 

 white. 



■ 



Dendrobium FORMOSUM GIGANTEUM, Van Houtte, Flore des Sevres, t. 1633 ; 

 Gardeners' Chro7iicle, 1882, xvii. p. 369, fig. 54 ; Williams Orchid- Groiv er^ s Manual^ 

 6 ed., p. 284. 



r 



Dendrobium Jormosuni is undoubtedly one of tlie most chaste and beautiful of 

 all the Asiatic Orchids which have yet been introduced. It is found in a wild 

 state growing on the plains and hills about Eangoon and Moulmein, near the coast, 

 where the average temperature ranges between 80^ and 85^ Fahr. It is a 

 very old inhabitant of our Orchid houses, having first been introduced into 

 this country in the year 1837, and we ourselves grew and exhibited it at the 

 Horticultural Society's Gardens at Chiswick, and at the Eoyal Botanic Society's Gardens 

 m the Regent's Park, London, upwards of forty years ago, w^here its snowy- white and 

 orange-yellow flowers rendered it extremely popular. The plant we here represent is a 

 very fine variety of D. formosum^ called giganteum , which is more robust in 

 constitution, while its growths are stouter, and its flowers much larger. Moreover, 

 when grown well it produces a greater quantity of blossoms on the stem. 



Dendrobium formosum giganteum was originally introduced by the Messrs. Low, 

 of Clapton, about the year 1856, from Eangoon ; since then, however, large 

 importations of this showy variety have from time to time reached this country* 

 and to maintain it in our collections it still requires to be frecjuently imported, as it 

 does not appear to flourish for any length of time under cultivation. The best plan is 

 to replenish one's stock annually, w^hich is not a heavy tax, as the newly imported 

 plants are sold at a very low price ; and if they arrive in the spring they 



