VANDA. 739 



Van DA, R. Brown. 



{Tribe Vandeae, subtribe Sarcantheae.) 

 This genus contains a number of magnificent species ; indeed, there 

 are not many Orchidaceous plants that surpass Vandas in the beauty of 

 their foliage and flowers. What more beautiful picture can there be 

 than an Orchid-house with flowering Vandas, and what more delightful 

 than the atmosphere of such a structure filled with their delicious fra- 

 grance ? Their habit of growth is the same as that of Aerides and 

 Saccolahiam, that is to say, they have erect leafy stems, the leaves being 

 •evergreen, usually channelled, distichous and leathery, often long and 

 ^gracefully decurved, praemorse or bilobed, sometimes though rarely 

 terete ; the peduncles ai-e lateral, produced from the axils of the leaves, 

 and the flowers, which are gaily coloured, fleshy in texture and usually 

 very fragrant, are collected into loose racemes. The flowers have free 

 sub-equal much spreading sepals and petals, and a lip which is continuous 

 with the base of the column, saccate or obtusely spurred, the lateral 

 lobes erect, the middle lobe spreading oblong. About twenty species 

 are referred to this genus, mostly natives of Tropical India and the 

 Malay Archipelago. 



Culture. — They require the same treatment as Aerides, except that 

 they require but little shade — the less they have the better they will 

 flower. They will blossom two or three times during the year when 

 treated in this way. Propagation is efiected by taking off the young 

 growths which spring from near the base of the stem, or by cutting the 

 stem as directed in the case of Aerides. 



V. AMESIANA, Rchh.f. — A handsome and charming Vanda, which was first 

 imported with a quantity of other Orchids from India. It is a dwarf -growing 

 evergreen and free-flowering species, producing distichous ligulate acute deep 

 gi-een leaves; the scape is erect carrying numerous delicately coloured and 

 very fragrant flowers ; sepals and petals nearly equal, flat and spreading, white 

 sufEused with a delicate blush ; lip deep rose margined with pale rose. It was 

 dedicated to the late Hon. F. L. Ames, of North Easton, U.S.A. The flowers, 

 which are produced in May and June, last several weeks in beauty. — Shan 

 States; India. 



Fm.—OirJiid Album, vii. t. 296 ; Bot. JLig., t. 7139 ; Juuni. of Hurt., 1889, xviii. 

 p. 103, f. 18. 



V. AIVIESIANA ALBA, Hort. — This chaste variety of this beautiful plant, 

 flowered in the Yictoria and Paradise Nurseries in 1889, having pure white 

 flowers. 



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