CYMBIDIUM LOWIANUM. 
[Puate 471.] 
Native of Burmah. 
Terrestrial. Pseudobulbs oblong, somewhat compressed, clothed with the sheathing 
bases of the leaves, which are ligulate acute, some two or three feet in length, 
keeled on the under side, and deep green. Spike long and drooping from the 
weight of the large raceme of flowers which it bears, individual flowers about four 
inches across. Sepals and petals of a soft yellowish green, having several sepia- 
brown lines running through their entire length, the sepals a little larger than the 
petals, keeled behind; lip three-lobed, the side lobes erect, standing up to, but not 
enclosing the column, greenish yellow, the front lobe somewhat deltoid, slightly 
undulated on the edge, deep purplish maroon, with a white marginal border, base 
of the lip white, the raised fleshy plates on the disc being stained with purple, 
and the face of the column also spotted with reddish purple. 
Cympipium Lowi1anum, Reichenbach, Gardeners’ Chronicle, B.S, XL, p.. 404, 
fig. 56. Floral Magazne, n.s., t. 353. Williams’ Orchid Grower's Manual, 6th 
edition, p. 234. 
This is one ef the most striking Orchids that we know. It was introduced 
from Burmah by the late Mr. Stuart Low, of the Clapton Nurseries, through his 
collector Boxall some sixteen years ago. Two years afterwards it flowered for the 
first time in Europe with Mr. Low, and was shown before the Royal Horticultural 
Society on March 11th, 1879, receiving a First Class Certificate, which it assuredly 
deserved. It was after this that Reichenbach raised it to specific rank, but upon 
its first introduction, he having to describe it from dried unsatisfactory materials, he 
had called it Cymbidium giganteum Lowianum; he had, however, the opportunity 
afterwards of examining living examples, and thus he saw the distinctions which 
could not be perceived in the dried flowers. Some botanists quite ignore the 
living examples, and are thus led into error. C. Lowianum, C. giganteum, C. 
Traceyanum, and the plant called C. Hookerianum by Reichenbach in 1866, but 
which has been since put with C. grandiflorum, of Griffith, all appear to make a 
distinct and very natural group of the genus, but we cannot admit of the propriety 
of lumping them together as one species, at least while we recognise specific names. 
Our plate was prepared from a plant in our own collection which was_ bearing 
ten spikes, the flowers in the aggregate amounting to 364 which was more 
than we had seen upon any other specimen this season, although we have seen 
this number far exceeded by the plants in the collection of R. H. Measures, Esq., 
