116 THE ORCHID REVIEW. _ |Juty-Aveust, 1919. 
BS 
4 “DENDROBIUM GIBSONII. ro 
= be 
HIS handsome yellow Dendrobium is not at all common in cultivation, 
_ but an inflorescence has been received for determination through 
Mr. F. J. Hanbury, Brockhurst, East Grinstead, who remarks the general 
resemblance to the spring-blooming D. fimbriatum var. oculatum. The 
species was originally described in 1838 (Paxt. Mag. Bot., v. p. 169, with 
plate), on the occasion ofits first flowering at Chatsworth. It was collected 
in the Khasia Hills by Gibson, who remarks how he saw it in bloom at the 
door of one of the native huts, and on hastening to the spot found it to be 
the same plant that he had found growing on rocks at 3000 feet altitude. 
A year later the same species was described by Lindley under the name 
of D. fuscatum (Jowru. Linn. Soc., iii. p. 8), being based upon materials 
collected in the Khasia Hills and in hot valleys in Sikkim, and it was 
afterwards figured from a specimen believed to have been imported from 
Khasia (Bot. Mag., t. 6226). 
There are some curious complications in the history of the species. 
When Lindley described D. fuscatum he overlooked D. Gibsonii, and when 
afterwards figuring the latter (Paxt. Fl. Gard., ii. p.-133, fig. 204), he made 
no mention of D. fuscatum, but remarked of D. Gibsonii: ‘‘ Its nearest 
ally is D. fimbriatum, with which we have reason to thiuk it is sometimes 
confounded,” and he added, ‘‘ We find it in our Herbarium from Griffith, 
gathercd on Mango trees in the province of Tenasserim.” This probably 
supplies the clue to the confusion. There are two dried flowers of Paxton’s 
original D. Gibsonii, preserved ina paper capsule which is*attached to the 
sheet containing Grlffith’s specimens labelled D. fimbriatum, which latter 
are not identical with the two separate flowers mentioned. This confusion 
was unnoticed by Sir Joseph Hooker when uniting D. fuscatum with D. 
Gibsonii, hence the inclusion of Burma in the distribution. We have seen 
no authentic specimens from there, but Dr. Henry collected it in Yunnan a 
few years ago, with several other Himnalayan Dendrobiums. In Sikkim, 
according to King & Pantling (Orch. “Stkkim, p. 58, t. 51), it occurs at 
elevations of 2000 to 5000 feet, flowering in July and August, while D.. 
fimbriatum oculatum blooms from March to May. They were unable to 
find the western D. fimbriatum there, though Eurma is included in its 
distribution, and thus the identity of the Burmese plant, of which we have 
only seen dried specimens, requires confirmatiou. It is possible that more 
than one species has been included under D. fimbriatum, but the yellow 
racemose Dendrobiums are difficult from dried specimens. 
R. A. ROLFE- 
