DENDEOBIUM SUPEEBIENS 



[Plate 312.] 



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J^ativG of J^orth Australia and Torres Straits 



Epiphytal. Pseudohulhs . stem-like, erect, fusiform, jointed, from one to three 

 feet in height, and about three inches in circumference, when young furnished with 

 leaves from the base upwards, but when mature the lower ones fall off, leaving 

 near the top four or five" distichous, oblong-acute sheathing leaves, which are 

 persistent, coriaceous in texture, and deep green. The scapes spring from the apex 

 of the stem, as well as from the axils of the leaves, arching gracefully, and bearing 

 from twelve to twenty-six flowers, which are upwards of two-and-a-half inches across, 

 arranged in a distichous manner, and of a very pleasing shade of warm rosy 

 purple. Sepals about an inch long, ligulate- acute reflexed, produced behind into a 

 short conical spur, the dorsal one being quite sessile, whitish on the outside, the 

 inside being rich rosy purple, having reticulated veins of a deeper shade of the same 

 hue, narrowly bordered with white ; petals cuneate-oblong, or rhomboid, reflexed, 

 much broader and longer than the sepals, and rich deep rosy purple in colour ; 

 lip three-lobed, side lobes erect, rhomboid, cucuUate, same colour as the sepals, 

 middle-lobe somewhat triangular, obtuse, reflexed, and slightly undulate on the margin, 



deep rosy purple, ornamented on the disc with five elevated ridges, which are 



fringed in front, and extended quite to the base ^ofThe middle-lobe. Column short 

 and stout, curved and triangular. 



Dendeobium superbiens, Rchh. JiL, Gardeners^ Chronicle, N.s. vi., p. 516 ; 

 Id. N.s. ix., p. 49, fig. 9; Floral Magazine^ second series, t. 294; Reichenbachia, i., 

 t. 39; Fitzgerald's Australian Orchids, ii., part I. 1884; Williams, Orchid-Grower* s 

 Manual, 6 ed., p. 301. 



We here wish to bring to the notice of our subscribers and Orchid growers 



generally one of the most distinct-coloured species of all the Dendrobia. It 



was discovered and sent home by our collector, Mr. Goldie, in the year 1 877, 

 from Torres Straits, on which abut the northern extremity of Australia and the 

 southern shore of the island of New Guinea. It is also reported to have been found 

 by Captain Broomfield on the islands known as the Prince of Wales* Group, situated 

 some twenty miles from the mainland of Queensland, and about fifty miles from 

 the New Guinea coast, and also on the mainland of North Australia. At that time 



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we imported a large quantity of plants of tliis species, of which many flowered 

 the same year ; and as a proof of its profuseness, we are enabled to say that from 

 that time until now we have never been without some of .its flowers in our Orchid 

 houses. D. siiperhiens would appear to be a most free-blooming plant in its native 

 •country, for we observed, when the first importation was received by us, some of 

 the old plants bearing as many as fifteen spikes on one stem ; and even after 



