ORCHIDS. 19 
DENDROBIUM NOBILE. 
Tus variety, characterized by mame as noble, grandly 
fine, — represented by Plate No. III.,— is a native of Assam, 
in China, a useful plant for winter decoration, of easy culture, and 
valuable, too, for color and fragrance. Its numerous and jointed 
stalks, often two feet long, when thrifty, blossom at nearly 
every joint. It blooms in winter and spring. 
“In the extensive genus of Dendrobium,’ says an American 
florist, Mr. Henderson, “we are presented with some truly 
magnificent epiphytes, which, regarded either for their singular 
manner of growing, graceful or grotesque habits, and large, hard- 
some, richly-scented flowers, are perhaps unsurpassed in the entire 
range of vegetable forms. And they may be divided into two 
sections, the pseudo-bulbous class and those with tall, bulbous 
stems. Many of the former are extremely small compared with 
the splendid flowers they produce, and, from this circumstance, 
are usually grown on blocks of wood or cork, lest the young 
shoots receive injury from excessive moisture. 
“Those belonging to the other section are again divisible. 
The upright-growing, such as D. nobile, make the best appearance 
when cultivated in pots and trained by the aid of stakes. Plants 
of pendant and trailing habit (like the D. macranthum) should be 
grown in baskets suspended from the roof of the house. 
«The genus Dendrobium consists of two hundred varieties, of 
which eighty and more are naturalized in our greenhouses, and 
some of them are grown to an extent that warrants their use as 
