THRIXSPERMUM BERKELEYI. 
[PLaTE 436.] 
Native of the Malay Islands. 
Epiphytal. Stem slender, very slow in growth, bearing numerous distichous 
leaves, which are spreading, ligulate, obtuse, slightly notched at the apex, keeled 
beneath, and dark green. Racemes pendent, many-flowered, the flowers small, 
creamy white, the lip stained with mauve; dorsal sepal somewhat hooded; Jateral 
sepals oblong, obtuse, and spreading; petals larger than the’ sepals, inversely ovate, 
all being thick and waxy in texture; lip saccate, three-lobed, side lobes small, erect 
narrowly falcate, middle lobe bearing two horn-like projections. Column short, and 
with the heaked anther resembling the head and neck of a bird. 
-TurixspermuM BerkeLeyi, Reichb. Jil, Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1882, xvii., p- 537. 
. Sarcocuitus Berkeweyi, Hook. fil, Flora of British India, vi., p. 37. 
The plant now under consideration is very interesting and delicately handsome. 
It is one of the many discoveries of Major-General E. S. Berkeley, to whom it is 
. dedicated, and who found it scattered over several of the islands in the Malay 
Archipelago, growing epiphytal on the stems and branches of trees. We have 
retained it here, in the genus to which it was referred by Reichenbach, as we cannot 
see why this name is more objectionable than many of those through which the 
various species have been distributed by authors; and, moreover, it claims to be 
the first name established. The following are a few of the genera under which 
many of the Thrixspermums are to be found, and we do not think they can claim much 
in regard to euphony :—Chiloschista, Dendrocolla, Sarcochilus, Ornitharium, ete. 
The present figure was drawn by our artist, Mr. John Nugent Fitch, from a 
plant sent from the gardens of Major-General Berkeley, at Bitterne, Southampton, where 
many rare and curious plants exist, and where the plants are carefully tended by Mr. 
Godfrey, the gardener. We may mention, in passing, that the town of Southampton 
has just sustained a great loss in the death of H. J. Buchan, Esq., who was 
certainly the premier Orchid grower of the district; indeed, we have noticed in his 
gardens the very strongest and largest-bulbed Odontoglossums seen by us in any 
~ eollection. | | 
—-«Thriespermum Berkeleyi, as may be inferred, is not a large-flowered and 
startling beauty, for its flowers are not more than an inch or an inch-and-a-half across 
the widest part. Its leaves seldom exceed six or eight inches across ; the raceme 
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