July, 1911.J 
THE ORCHID REVIEW . 
VANDA CCERULEA. 
By Chas. Power, Barrackporr, India. 
URING my recent travels through the Khasia and Jynthia Hills, the 
home of our famous Vanda ccerulea, I was able to obtaip much 
valuable information regarding this beautiful plant, especially concerning the 
natural conditions under which it exists. These hills would scarcely appeal 
to the ordinary traveller, the 
whole country, with the ex¬ 
ception of a few fertile 
localities, being a vast wilder¬ 
ness. The undulating hills, 
stretching for miles on all 
sides, are covered with a 
thick, coarse grass, and 
dotted here and there with a 
few stunted oaks and clumps 
of pine trees on which the 
botanist would discover an 
Ccelogynes, Err«s, Cirrho- 
petalums and Bulbophyl- 
lums. Yet to the trained 
and experienced collector some of our most beautiful Orchids are within 
easy reach by leaving the beaten tracks. The few exceptions of fertile 
localities mentioned above are, as a rule, within the radius of the main rivers 
and streams, where no regular means of communication exist, and the aid 
of a guide is absolutely essential. It is only in these localities that Orchids 
of any value are to be found in quantity. Vanda ccerulea, however, may be 
seen growing in small numbers in or near villages adjacent to a reserved 
forest, as in the case at Nartiung, where these plants were at one time very 
plentiful, but owing to the depredations of collectors and the general 
indiscriminative manner in which Orchids were collected, it was only the 
timely action of the Shillong Government that really saved the extinction 
of this species, a fact that is highly appreciated here by the real lover of 
Orchids. It is satisfactory to know that no collector may now take away 
more than a dozen plants, and these only by special permission and on 
payment of a royalty of one rupee per plant. A very wise precaution. 
For the information of those wishing to grow plants from this locality 
it is necessary to give the various altitudes, temperatures, rainfall, etc., which 
I have carefully noted. Vanda ccerulea is found at an altitude of 3,000 
to 4,000 feet on the Khasia and Jynthia Hills, occupying the grassy portions,- 
