out most fully when their drooping spikes are so arranged as to overhang or mingle 
with the foliage of ferns or other ornamental plants. 
The variety we now bring under the notice of our readers is a thoroughly useful 
plant, and a valuable acquisition to the C. vestita section, being a gigantic and _highly- 
coloured form. Our drawing was taken from a well-grown plant in the select collection 
of Dr. Duke, of Lewisham, who is a great lover of Orchids. | 
Calanthe vestita oculata gigantea will be seen to possess a remarkably showy 
character, and like C. Sanderiana, C. Williams, and C. Turneri, produces its 
blossoms after C. vestita and C. Veitchii are over, thus having a special value as 
affording a succession of bloom. The foliage of C. vestita oculata gigantea, moreover, 
remains green during the time of its flowering. It has long arching spikes, three 
to four feet in length, producing numerous flowers, which are large and of a soft creamy 
white colour with a white lip, the base of the lip and underside being of 
a dazzling fiery red, which feature is the most striking characteristic of the variety. 
It blooms in March and April, and continues flowering for two months or more. 
Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P., exhibited at one of the exhibitions of the : 
Royal Horticultural Society, some few years ago, an example of this beautiful variety, 
with a long spike bearing as many as thirty expanded flowers, and there were then 
more to open; this specimen received a First Class Certificate and was much admired. 
As regards its cultivation, Mr. Noakes, Dr. Duke’s Gardener, cultivates this 
plant in the same way and gives the same treatment as that we have recommended 
for C. Veitch at Plate 31 of our first volume. , 
