DENDROBIUM CRYSTALLINUM. 
[Puate 441.] 
Native of Burmah. 
Epiphytal. Stems tufted, terete, inclining to be pendulous and slightly flexuose, 
from a foot to eighteen inches in length, furnished with numerous semi-transparent 
sheaths. Leaves distichous, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, from four to six inches in 
length, pale green in colour, and deciduous. Flowers some two inches across, mostly 
in pairs, but sometimes three are developed, on short, slender peduncles, issuing from 
the upper nodes; sepals and petals spreading, white, tipped with rose, in some 
varieties this becomes of a pale rose, and in others the apical blotch in the 
sepals is wanting; petals obovate, much broader than the linear-oblong sepals, white, 
with a broad blotch of rose at the apex; lip nearly circular in front, the side lobes 
forming a convolute claw, the surface of the circular front lobe being furred and of 
a rich golden yellow, tipped with rosy magenta and having a marginal border of 
white. Column very short. 
DENDROBIUM cRYSTALLINUM, Reichenbach fil, in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1868, 
p. 572; Xenia Orchidacea, ii., p. 210, t 193.; Botanical Magazne, t. 6319; 
Williams’ Orchid Grower's Manual, p. 277. 
This plant is a native of the Arracan Mountains in Burmah, a country which 
appears to abound in species and varieties of the genus Dendrobium. It was found 
by Colonel Benson, we are told, growing upon small trees in exposed places, 
D. Bensonie being frequently found growing upon the same trees with it. The plant 
was first sent to Messrs. James Veitch and Sons, of Chelsea, by Colonel Benson, 
about twenty-four years ago, and in their establishment it first flowered in the 
spring of 1868. Dendrobium crystallinum, growing as it does freely and well under 
cultivation, and being found in the company of D. Bensonie, which is a reputed 
bad grower, some idea may be formed as to the requirements of that plant, to 
enable us to lead this, one of the finest of the white-flowered Dendrobes, to become 
a permanent resident in our collections. Beautiful as is any form of D. crystallinum, 
the variety here figured is a much finer one than that figured in the Botanical 
Magazine, t. 6319. The plant from which our plate was taken was grown by 
Mr. Godfrey, in the choice collection of Major-General Berkeley, Bitterne, Southampton, 
where it flowered in the early part of the present season. 
Dendrobium crystallinum is a deciduous plant, but its young growth comes up 
at the time of flowering, so that the plant is not entirely devoid of leaves when this 
event takes place. During the growing season the plant should be kept in the East 
Indian house, but when the growths are finished up, less water is necessary than 
BB 
