106 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



Chamberlain, m.p., who had received it from J. M. Davidson, Esq., Stanley 

 Street, South Brisbane. The plant is growing on the branches of a tree in 

 the open air, and thriving in a way never seen in European hot-houses. It 

 is a native of the East Coast of Australia, and is found in various localities 

 in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. It was the first Australian 

 Orchid introduced to England, and was obtained by Sir Joseph Banks in 

 1S01. Lindley, in figuring the plant, in 1833 (Bot. Reg., t. 1610), re- 

 marked :— " Scarcely any plant is more common than this in collections 

 near London ; so readily is it cultivated that it rarely happens that a 

 gardener does not succeed in keeping it, and multiplying it abundantly ♦ 

 tied to a stick or planted in earth, preserved in a greenhouse or stimulated 

 in a stove, in all cases it preserves the deep green of its leaves. But it 

 seldom flowers." He then emphasized the necessity of growing it strongly, 

 as it was when the pseudobulbs were twice the size of those usually seen 

 that it produced its stately and beautiful racemes of wax-like flowers. It 

 is now known that vigorous growth, followed by a very thorough rest, are 

 the secrets of success. 



We may conclude with a very interesting paragraph from Fitzgerald's 

 Australian Orchids (vol. ii), where the species is figured :— " Dendrobium 

 speciosum, about thirty years ago, was common on all the sandstone cliffs 

 about Sydney, and on all such outlying rocks as were large enough to afford 

 safety from bush fires ; none are now to be found except in gardens, and 

 every year the circle is enlarging within which it is disappearing never to 

 return. The ' Rock Lily,' as it is called, will never again be found in the 

 localities from which it has been removed, or multiply in those to which it 

 has been taken. It may produce seed, but the seed never grows, and at 

 length the old plants must die never to be replaced. I have sown millions 

 of seeds in the most favourable situations without success, and even in 

 places where it has not been disturbed, though the plants be numerous, 

 very few indeed are young. On the bare or moss-covered rock (at least at 

 the southern portion of its habitat) is the place where the Rock Lily grows, 

 but this only because it is the only place on which its seeds vegetate, for 

 when the plants are removed and given a liberal supply of rich mould and 

 old manure they improve wonderfully. ... In some places, however, 

 where the soil accumulates about them and is composed of leaf-mould and 

 ashes blown upon them, they may be found equally fine. There are 

 exceptional years in which there is a general flowering of all the plants in a 

 district, but Dendrobium speciosum never flowers freely in succeeding 

 years." 



But even Mr. Fitzgerald succeeded in germinating hybrid seeds, and 

 keeping the young plants for some years, until they were devoured by a 

 large hairy caterpillar, and there can be no doubt that the seeds germinate 



