172 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [Avcust, 1917, 
ES VANDA HASTIFERA. s&s 
N interesting lost species has reappeared in cultivation, namely, Vanda 
| hastifera, Rchb. f., of which a living plant has been sent from 
Singapore to Kew, where it is now showing for flower. The species was 
originally described in 1877 (Linnea., xli. p- 30), from a plant which 
flowered with M. J. Linden at Brussels, and which is said to have been 
there labelled Vanda lamellata. No clue to the habitat was given. Some 
six years later Reichenbach published another note (Gard. Chron., 1883, 
ii. p. 566), remarking : “It was in 1872 that I saw a single plant of this—a 
remarkably tall specimen—at Director Linden’s. It had a lax raceme of 
flowers, which surpassed those of Vanda Boxallii, though they were not 
equal to those of V. tricolor.” He then described the characters of the 
plant, stating that the sepals and petals were light yellow with fine red 
blotches, and the front lobe of the lip hastate, and covered with hairs at 
the base, finally adding: “I never again saw a vestige of the plant till 
quite lately, when, after an interval of more than a decennium, Mr. F. 
Sander sent me well dried flowers and a good sketch in colours, all 
prepared in the Sondaic Archipelago by his zealous and intelligent 
traveller, Mr. Foerstermann. I learn that a small set of living plants is 
likely to come under the hammer, and we may hope to become better 
acquainted with this plant, the “ Banganayer ” (water twig) of the Malays, 
as I was told by the excellent collector.” 
The first clue to the habitat of the plant came in 1897, when Messrs. 
James Veitch & Sons sent to Kew a single flower of a Vanda, labelled 
“‘ Borneo, Curtis, 1880,” which from description I thought might be the 
same plant, and in December, 1911, a fine set of photographs were sent 
from British North Borneo, by Mr. H. M. Woolley, from the State Rubber 
Plantations, Jesselton, which obviously represented Curtis’ plant. It is 
_ also the Renanthera trichoglottis, Ridl. (Journ. Linn. Soc., xxx. p. 293)» 
collected on limestone rocks, Sarawak, by Mr. Haviland, for there is @ 
specimen at Kew, collected at Kuching, Borneo, in October, 1908, by 
Hewitt, which is authenticated by Mr. Ridley. The author compares the 
plant with various allied genera, his remarks tending to show that the 
structure is somewhat anomalous, though after comparing the dried flower 
and the photograph we think that Reichenbach was right in referring the 
plant to Vanda. The re-appearance of the species in cultivation after $0 
long an interval. js interesting. 
There are several other Malayan Vandas which are still very imperfectly 
known. R.A.R. 
