Ir 
r Waal 
RE, CECXE: 
DENDROBIUM NOBILE unoz. var. COOKSONIANUM cus. r. 
THE NOBILE DENDROBIUM, COOKSON’S VARIETY. 
DENDROBIUM. Vide Lindenia, Engl. ed., vol. I, p- 37. 
Dendrobium nobile. Pseudobulbi teretes, elongati, foliosi. Folia lanceolato-oblonga, inaequaliter bidentata, sub- 
obtusa. Flores fasciculati v. brevissime racemosi, speciosi. Bracteae vaginatae, ovato-oblongae, obtusae. Sepala patentia, 
lineari-oblonga, subobtusa, sepalis multo latiora. Labellum suborbiculare v. rotundato-ovatum, obtusum v. subacutum, 
basi convolutum, disco velutino. Columna brevissima. 
Dendrobium nobile LINDL. Gen. & Sp. Orch. (1830), p. 79. —Ip., Sert. Orch., t. 3. —Ip., Bot. Reg., XXX, 
Misc., p. 48. — Ip. in Fourn. Linn, Soc., Ul, p. 12. — Pax. Mag. Bot., VU, p. 7, cum. ic. — VeITcH Man, 
Orch., pt. 3, p. 63, cum xyl. — Hook. r. Fl. Brit. Ind., V, p- 740. 
D. coerulescens WaLL. ex LINDL. Sert. Orch., t. 18. 
D. Lindleyanum Grirr. Notul., II, p. 309, ex parte, excl. fig. 
Var. Cooksonianum. Petala labello subsimilia, planiora, basi atropurpurea. 
Var. Cooksonianum Reus. F. in Gard. Chron., 1885, pt. I, p. 692. — VertcH Man. Orch., pt. II, pp- 63, 64, 
cum xyl. 
endrobium nobile was originally described by Dr. LINDLEY, in 1830, 
from a Chinese drawing in the Library of the Horticultural Society 
of London. The drawing was brought home by Mr. Reeves, together 
with a living plant, which was presented by him to Messrs. Loppices, of Hackney, 
in whose collection we are told it flowered for the first time, and in great 
magnificence, in February, 1837. A figure was at once published by Dr. LinpLey 
in his Sertwm Orchidacearum. The plant was bought in the market at Macao. 
Immediately afterwards, in April 1838, another plant, which had been sent 
from the Khasia hills to the Duke of Devonsur by Mr. Gison, flowered at 
Chatsworth and was described as D. coerulescens Watt., but soon proved iden- 
tical with the Chinese plant. 
The species is now known to occur over a rather wide range, from Sikkim 
to Central China, and a considerable number of distinct varieties are in culti- 
vation. The one here figured is a curious and splendid sport in which the petals 
are metamorphosed, and somewhat lip-like in character, being somewhat concave, 
more parallel with the column, and with a large maroon blotch on the basal 
half. It is said to have been first observed in the collection of Mr. TuHroporr 
Lance, at Heathfield House, Gateshead. Plants passed into the collection of 
Norman C. Cooxson, Esq., of Wylam-on-Tyne, who first exhibited it, and 
whose name was applied: to it by Prof. ReIcHENBACH. Singularly enough the 
same sport is said to have since appeared independently in two other collections. 
It appears to be quite permament in character, and as easy to grow and flower 
ats 
Ve 
oases 
