Aucust, 1914.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 230 
book may be the basis of a new species, and there are many types which 
have a very interesting history. 
When Osbeck, on his return from China, over a century and a-half ago, 
landed for a short time on the coast of Western Java, and brought away an 
inflorescence of a beautiful white Orchid, which he subsequently dried and. 
sent to Linnzus, he probably did not realise that it would stand for all 
time as the type specimen of one of the most beautiful Orchids we possess. 
Linneus called it Epidendrum amabile—the few epiphytic Orchids then 
known were all called Epidendrum, but much has been learnt since then. 
Later on Swartz saw that some division of Epidendrum was necessary, and 
created the genus Cymbidium, to which Osbeck’s plant was referred, as- 
Cymbidium amabile. Blume next saw that the plant was not a 
Cymbidium, and called it Phalaenopsis amabilis, owing to a fancied 
resemblance to a moth. Under this name it appears in Lindley’s Genera 
and Species of Orchidaceous Plants, the species then not being in cultivation. 
When Cuming afterwards went to the Philippines he sent living specimens. 
of a beautiful white Phalzenopsis that Lindley thought was P. amabilis, 
Blume, and so figured it in the Botanical Register, but when subsequently 
the true Javan plant was imported alive Lindley, instead of seeing his- 
mistake, described it as a new species, under the name of P. grandiflora, 
and actually figured a flower of each to show the difference between them. 
It was left to Reichenbach to point out the error, but in such a way that. 
the erroneous names were retained for garden use, and before the correct 
names were fully adopted the Javan plant, by another irony of fate, was- 
imported in quantity under the name of P. Rimestadiana, under which it is- 
still largely grown. 
In some cases the type specimens were not kept, or have been 
subsequently lost. Even Lindley, in some cases, made a drawing on his- 
Herbarium sheet and did not keep the specimen, so that the drawing 
becomes the only type. But when neither specimen nor drawing can be 
found it may be difficult or impossible to identify an imperfectly described 
plant, and there are such cases among Orchids, all of which shows the 
'mportance of an exact standard of reference. 
We have spoken of a Herbarium in the limited sense of a collection of 
dried plants of any definite kind, not in the broader sense of a large 
éstablishment devoted to every phase of botanical work, with its necessary 
adjunct of an extensive library and collection of drawings, as the great 
‘Rational establishment at Kew. This indeed contains many different 
Herbaria, as the Lindley Orchid Herbarium, the Watson and the Borrer 
Herbaria of British plants, the Wallichian Herbarium of Indian plants, 
&., all of which retain their distinct names because not incorporated in 
the general collection. 
