May-JUNE, 1919.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 97 
KG STAUROPSIS PARISHII & S. MARRIOTTIANA. ey 
OME considerable time ago Messrs. Stuart Low & Co., exhibited at a 
meeting of the R.H.S. good examples of the plants known in gardens 
under the names of Vanda Parishii and var. Marriottiana, and our attention: 
was called to the marked differences between them. It is a point that we 
have long realised, as also that they do not belong to the genus Vanda at all, 
having entirely the structure of Stauropsis. In fact, when V. Parishii was. 
originally described it was compared with V. lissochiloides and V. gigantea, 
which also belong to Stauropsis. We have again received flowers of 
the two, and a brief note on their history may be useful. 
Stauropsis Parisuit, Rolfe, is the plant that was originally described by 
Reichenbach under the name of Vanda Parishii, in 1868 (Xen. Orch.. il. 
p. 138), the species having been discovered in Burma six years earlier by the 
Rev. C. Parish. Some years later it was again met with, and living plants | 
were introduced through Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., of Clapton (Gard.. 
Chron., 1870, p. 890). Subsequently a good figure appeared (Orch. Alb., i. t. 
15). It isa very attractive species, with bright green, very fleshy leaves, 
and an erect spike of large, greenish yellow flowers, copiously spotted with. 
warm brown. Its precise habitat was not originally given, but the late Mr. 
R. Moore, the discoverer of Cypripedium Charlesworthii, has recorded that 
it is found near the Salween River (O.R., iii. p. 170). The species is now 
flowering well in the Kew collection. ' 
STAUROPSIS MARRIOTTIANA, Rolfe, was originally described by 
Reichenbach, under the name of Vanda Parishti var. Marriottiana (Gard. 
Chron., 1880, i. page 743), from a plant which flowered in the collection of 
Sir William Marriott, Down House, Blandford. Three years later it was 
independently described from a plant which flowered at Kew, under the 
name of V. Parishii var. purpurea (N. E. Br. in Gard. Chron., Pes! . 
page 307), Both authors had considered the difference from V. Parishii as 
one of colour only, but there are others, especially in the shape of the 
flowers, the present one invariably having broader, rounder segments, which 
are bright purple at the base, passing into a shade of brown towards the 
apex. This is also figured in the Orchid Album (ii. t. 61), and a comparison 
of the two will show how marked are the differences. — The habitat, again, 
is different, the present one, according to Mr. R. Moore (O.R. i. p. 60), 
being fairly plentiful east of Lake Inle, in the Shan States. It also is 
grown at Kew, but is not yet in bloom. ; 
The genus is widely diffused, from India and South China, tnrough the 
Malayan Archipelago and the Philippines to New Guinea. R. A. R 
