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150 THE ORCHID REVIEW. (Sept.-OcT., 1919. 
form the rest of the inflorescence. The species is a native of Borneo, 
where it was discovered by Sir Hugh Low, probably in 1845, for early in, 
‘the following year he sent specimens to Lindley, and remarked: ‘‘ As I saw 
it, nothing could have exceeded it in beauty; about 200 of its branches 
were hanging horizontally from the main stem ofa large: tree, from each of 
which depended two, three, or four chains of flowers, each 10 feet in length 
and sometimes 12 feet. . . . It delights in high trees on the banks of 
rivers, thick forests, and other humid places” (Gard. Chron., 1847, p. 239). 
The existence of two different kinds of flowers appears to have been over- 
ooked, as also it may have been by Wallace. who afterwards met with the 
species. The latter remarked: ‘‘ Vanda Lowii is particularly abundant 
near some hot springs at the foot of the Peninjauh Mountain. It grows on 
the lower branches of trees, and its strange pendant flower-spikes often 
hang down so as to almost to reach the ground.” The habit is well shown 
in a figure (Wallace, Malay Archip., i. p. 128). Curtis also collected the 
plant in the low, swampy forest near the coast of Sarawak, where it fs said 
to be abundant, and in the rainy season many of the trees on which it grows 
are Only accessible by means.of a canoe. It is always found in the neigh- 
bourhood of water, generally on the higher branches of the loftiest trees, 
and overhanging the smaller streams, sometimes in company with Cypri- 
pedium Lowii. 
The plant has many times been imported, and succeeds well in a warm 
house, though from its size and peculiar habit it is not always easy torfind a 
‘suitable position, and the long, whipcord-like racemes have to be tied up to 
prevent them from trailing on the ground. A well-grown plant with a 
dozen to twenty racemes presents a striking appearance. The really 
remarkable character of the plant is the constant production of two kinds 
of flowers on the same raceme, the difference extending to both colour and 
shape, the latter being well shown overleaf. At the base of the inflorescence 
are two or three flowers like the one figured on the right, the colour being 
deep orange, with a few very small brown dots (these not well shown in the 
photograph), while the remaining twenty or more have a narrower, undalate 
shape, and large chocolate-brown blotches on a light yellow ground. The 
cause of this difference is still a mystery. It is not sexuality, for the organs 
are equally perfect in both, and M. Kramer. gardener to Madame Jenisch, 
Hamburg, has stated that “ the basilar flowers fertilised by themselves, the 
. others by themselves, the basilar by the others, and the others by the 
basilar, all gave ripe fruits.” Mr. Spyers, gardener to Sir Trevor Lawrence, 
however, has recorded that the basal flowers emit a very powerful odour, 
while none of the chocolate and white are anything but slightly scented. 
There remains amystery yet to be solved, and it may be in some way con- 
nected with the fertilising insect. ‘> R. A, ROLFE. 
