FEBRUARY, 1917.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 29 
‘come 3 
ES PLEIONE PRAECOX AND P. WALLICHIANA. Be 
HESE charming little plants, though originally described as distinct by 
Lindley, have long been regarded as forms of a single species. Plants 
that flowered recently at Kew, however, confirm the original view, and a 
comparison of all the materials has shown a considerable amount of 
confusion in the history of the two. 
PLEIONE PR#&COX was originally described and figured by Sir James 
Edward Smith in 1806, under the name of Epidendrum precox (Exot. Bot., 
ii. p. 73, t. 97), the author remarking: ‘‘ My excellent friend and fellow- 
student, Dr. Buchanan Hamilton, having most generously put me into 
possession of all his drawings of Indian plants, together with his 
manuscripts and a herbarium of about 1,500 species collected in his 
journey to Nepal, I hasten to communicate some of these rarities to the 
public. The country of Nepal has never before been explored by any 
naturalist. . . . The plant grows among mosses, on the trunks of 
trees or on rocks, in Upper Nepal. Its name in the Nawar language, 
spoken by the subjected original natives of Nepal, is Caybu swa. The 
plant subsequently became Pleione preecox, Don (Prodr. Fl. Nepal., p. 37), 
and Coelogyne preecox (Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch., p. 20), and for a good many 
years was only known from dried materials. In 1848 it was figured (Paxt. 
Mag. Bot., xiv. p. 7, with tab.) from garden specimens which flowered in 
the collection of J. Allcard, Esq., Stratford Green, Essex, in 1845, when it 
was remarked that it differed from C. Wallichiana principally in being 
altogether more robust, having paler coloured flowers, and a much finer 
fringed labellum.’”’ And it was added: ‘‘ Messrs. Loddiges record that they 
possessed C. praecox in 1840, earlier than which period we question whether 
it existed in this country.” 
PLEIONE WALLICHIANA appears to have been recorded for the first time 
in 1830, under the name of Ceelogyne Wallichiana (Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch., 
Pp. 43) as a species discovered at Pundua by Dr. Wallich. It was known, 
however, a good deal earlier, for when it was figured by the latter (PI. 
Asiat. Rar., i. p. 46, t. 54) the author remarked (p. 45) that C. maculata and 
Wallichiana were ‘‘ natives of the lofty range of mountains which confine 
Bengal towards the district of Silhet in an easterly and northerly direction. 
They were introduced into the Hon. East India Company’s garden at 
Calcutta in 1816, and I have often had the satisfaction of seeing them in 
flower there.” In 1838 plants’ flowered at Chatsworth, and Lindley 
remarked (Bot. Reg., xxiv. Misc. p. 85): “‘ At last a plant of the beautiful 
division of Coelogyne called Pleione by Professor Don has appeared in the 
