S8 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



ARACHNANTHE MOSCHIFERA. 

 Arachnanthe moschifera is a very remarkable Orchid which is seldom 

 seen in cultivation in England, and the photograph from which the 

 annexed figure was prepared was sent to us by Hugh Dixon, Esq., of 

 Sydney, the possessor of one of the largest and oldest private collections in 

 Australia. It was sent to him about ten years ago by some Eastern collector, 

 and has now flowered for the first time. The plant is rather tall and 

 climbing in habit, and produces aerial roots on the stem, as seen in 

 the photograph, which is much reduced. A second photograph shows a 

 flower nearly natural size, and the dimensions are noted as three inches 

 wide by four inches across the broadest diameter. The colour is greenish 

 yellow, irregularly barred and blotched with deep brownish red. The 



shape is remarkable, and not unlike some gigantic spider. It is uncertain 

 when the species first flowered in England, but at all events it bloomed 

 with Messrs. Heath & Sons, of Cheltenham, in July, 1894, the plant having 

 been imported from Java about ten years before it flowered. The plant 

 was noted as ten feet high, and the spike two feet long, branched, and 

 bearing fifteen flowers. It is a rather widely-diffused Malayan species, 

 being found in Java, Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, and probably elsewhere, 

 at moderate elevations, and thus it requires to be grown in the East Indian 

 house where it succeeds very well if a suitable position can be found, for, 

 like the handsome Renanthera caccinea, it requires a little head-room 

 It should receive similar treatment to Aerides and its allies. 



