CALANTHE VESTITA OCULATA GIGANTEA. 
[PLatE 211.] 
Native of Borneo. 
Terrestrial. Pseudobulbs large, bluntly angular, covered when mature, with a 
silvery gray skin and terminating in the remains of the leaves of the previous 
season’s growth. Leaves broadly lanceolate, herbaceous in texture, strongly nervose, 
retained on the plant during the flowering period. Scape radical, three to four 
feet long, more vigorous than in the usual forms, terminating in a well furnished 
arching raceme, shagey with long thin hairs. lowers large and very attractive, about 
three-and-a-half inches in depth, three inches across the spreading petals, and one- 
and-a-half inch across the lip, all creamy white except the eye-like spot on the disk, 
the pedicels green issuing from the axils of the boat-shaped acuminate pale green 
bracts; sepals lanceolate-acuminate, the dorsal one erect, the lateral ones spreading 
horizontally from the base of the lip; petals similar, but slightly broader acute, spread 
out between the dorsal and lateral sepals; lip projected beyond the rest of the flower, 
two inches long and one-and-a-half inch broad, flat, three-lobed, the lateral lobes obliquely 
oblong-obtuse, the front lobe broader, cuneate, and deeply parted into two oblong- 
obtuse segments, creamy white, with an eye-like spot of a dazzling flame .colour or 
fiery red, which is extending forwards on to the disk or base of the lip, and is 
continued backwards to the end of the slender decurved tapering spur, forming a most 
attractive feature in the flower. Column projected forwards, half an inch long, 
broadly adnate with the base of the lip. 
CALANTHE VESTITA OCULATA GIGANTEA, Reichenbach fil., M.S.; Williams, Orchid- 
Grower's Manual, 6 ed., 
Until within the last few years the deciduous group of Calanthe has been 
limited to a very few kinds, but now the species and varieties are becoming more 
numerous—a fact which we are delighted to note, seeing that many of the latest 
introductions are great improvements on the older types. These novelties we owe 
to the perseverance of our botanical explorers, who are constantly finding and sending 
to Europe these and other useful plants, as the fruits of their explorations. These 
Orchids with their graceful spikes of charming flowers, are invaluable for the 
decoration of our houses in the long dull months of winter. C. Veitchii, together 
with C. vestita and its varieties, which were the only kinds formerly known, are 
well-known to be of easy cultivation; and the newly-introduced species and varieties 
resemble them in their requirements, so that anyone having a warm house can grow 
them without difficulty. They are very accommodating in their habits, as they will 
thrive either when suspended from the roof, or when grown on the tables of a warm 
stove-house. When in bloom they have a most elegant appearance, which is brought 
