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PHAIUS WALLICHI, P. GRANDIFOLIUS AND P. BLUMEI. 
These three plants belong to ‘a somewhat badly defined group. Horticulturally, 
- they retain distinct names, but these are often misapplied and confounded with each 
other. 
As a matter of fact these species differ but little from one another. When describing 
P. Wallichi, the editor of the Botanical Magazine, regarded them as being very nearly 
related. REICHENBACH also expressed the opinion that P. gvandifolius, P. Blumei, and 
P. Wallichi might be considered as forms or sub-species of the same type. 
P. grandifolius is longest known, having been introduced in'1778; it was soon 
followed by P. Blumei, while the introduction of P. Wallichi dates from 1837. 
P. grandifolius produces a racemose cluster of 12 to 20 flowers on an erect peduncle 
a foot or more high, each bloom measuring about 4 inches (10 centimétres) across. The 
sepals and petals are lanceolate acute, with a few longitudinal veins on a yellow ground 
shaded with pale brownish red, the outer surface being silvery white. The lip forms 
a tube encircling the column, and expands in front into an ovate-cordate limb, crisped on 
- the margin; it is wholly white, with a deep yellow throat prolonged into a paler stripe 
of the same colour along the median line; at each side of the opening of the tube is 
a faint trace of purple rose, while the anterior portion is sometimes spotted with the 
same colour. The spur is short and curved. 
This species varies somewhat and this is explained by the fact of its wide geo- 
graphic distribution, being met with in the Southern Himalayas, in Cochin China and 
in Australia. 
P. Blumei, which was described by LinpLey and discovered in Java by BLume, 
has broader segments of a deeper colour and is distinctly mottled. 
P. Wallichit has somewhat larger flowers, with narrower linear lanceolate sepals 
and petals of a brownish yellow, the outer surface being of a. grayish white colour. 
The ovate lip, which folds over the column and has a reflexed tip, has an orange 
tube, and a yellow disc lightly striped with red and bordered with red on each side. 
This form is often met with in gardens under the name of P. Manni; it is also 
very variable, and collectors have come across four differently coloured varieties. 
These species of Phaius should be grown in a warm intermediate house in a 
compost of fibrous loam, with a little sphagnum and peat. P. grandifolius seems to 
require a little less heat, and may very well be grown during the middle of summer 
in the Cattleya house. | 
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