DENDROBIUM ATRO-VIOLACEUM. 
[PuaTE 444. | 
Native of Eastern New Guinea. 
Kpiphytal. Pseudobulbs clavate, furrowed, attenuated below, where it is terete, 
upwards of a foot long. Leaves two and three on the apex of the pseudobulb, 
these are oblong-ovate, thick and leathery in texture, dark green. Raceme terminal, 
bearing in this instance probably an imperfect quantity of flowers, being only five 
in number, and these being about two-and-a-half inches across. Sepals ovate-lanceolate; 
petals broader, obovate, acute, all fleshy in texture, ivory-white, and all more or less 
spotted with deep purple on the inside, but the spots on the outside are duller in 
hue; dip three-lobed, side lobes large, erect, incurved and rounded, rich violet-purple 
within, but green without, anterior lobe ovate, with incurved margins, rich violet- 
purple on the inside, narrowly bordered with green, disc having a fleshy keel, which 
towards the base becomes divided. Column short, white, tinged with deep purple 
in front. 
DenpRoBIUM aTRO-vioLAcEUM, R. A. Rolfe, Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1890, third 
series, vii., p. 512. 
This distinct and handsome species would appear to have only arrived home 
from New Guinea some two years ago, and we believe the plant here figured to 
be the only one that has flowered in this country. For this very beautiful species 
we are indebted to Messrs. James Veitch and Sons, of Chelsea, who obtained it from 
the Eastern part of the famous island of New Guinea, a country which appears to 
abound in new and wonderful forms of plant life. It belongs to the same 
group. as Dendrobium macrophyllum, of Achille Richard, but this plant has 
not reached us in a living state. The variety D. Veitchianum, however, is well- 
known; it is a native of very hot jungles in the island of Java, and the 
plant evidently comes from a very hot and moist place. The species now under 
consideration is a far handsomer kind than any of the same group at present 
known, and we have no doubt there are many new and charming forms of the 
same genus yet to come from New Guinea. For the opportunity of figuring this 
beautiful and. rare plant we are indebted to the kindness of Mrs. Studd, Royal 
Crescent, Bath, in whose collection it flowered in the spring of the present year 
(1891), but since then the place has been denuded of Orchids, where many splendid 
varieties existed, and where the plants were well done under the care of Mr. G. 
Cypher. | 
Dendrobium atro-violaceum is a robust and noble-growing plant, with persistent 
leaves, but it has not been in this country long enough to establish itself and display 
its beauty in the fullest degree. The pseudobulbs are clavate, tapering downwards, 
