• r6 4 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



HABENARIA MEDUSiE. 



A very remarkable species of Habenaria has just flowered in the establish- 

 ment L'Horticole Coloniale, Brussels, which is said to have been found in 

 an importation of plants from Java. If anyone could imagine a form of 

 the South African Bartholina pectinata having a white lip, and the flowers 

 borne ten together in a raceme, he would have a very good idea of the- 

 general appearance of this plant. It evidently belongs to Habenaria 

 Medusae, a species described by Kranzlinin 1893 {Engl. Jahrb.,xvi., p. 203), 

 from a specimen in the Leyden Herbarium, marked "Java? ex herb. 

 Blume." It was afterwards figured {Xen. Orch., iii, p. 149, t. 286, fig. 1), 

 and the present plant agrees well, the chief difference being that the 

 divisions of the lip are more numerous, but it must be remembered that 

 the drawing has been restored from a dried specimen. The plant is- 

 comparatively dwarf — the drawing shows it under a foot high, with three 

 oblong leaves near the base, and an inflorescence of about eight flowers. 

 The living raceme has ten flowers, whose most conspicuous part is the 

 remarkably dissected lip, which measures over i£ inches broad, and is- 

 divided almost to the base into about forty narrow unite filaments, which 

 are somewhat curved, and radiate in the shape of a fan, while at the base 

 is a slender spur, nearly two inches lon^. The ovate, spreading lateral 

 sepals are also white, and about four lines long, while the petals are united 

 with the dorsal sepal to a concave hood of about the same length. It is 

 to be hoped that the plant will prove amenable to cultivation, for it is a 

 very striking object, and would form a suitable companion to the handsome 

 H. militaris and H. carnea. 



R. A. Rolfe. 



OBITUARY. 



V. Faus, well known as one of the most skilled Orchid growers in the- 

 country, and for several years in charge of the Orchid department of Julius. 

 Roehrs, at Rutherford, N. J., is dead. Mr. Faus underwent a surgical 

 operation on Tuesday last and died on the next day. He was a man of 

 large experience, both in this country and in Europe, having been at one 

 time with Baron Hruby's famous collection in Austria, and was formerly 

 Orchid grower to George Schlegel, at Bay Ridge, N.Y., and had a remarkable 

 knowledge of varieties. Under his care the Roehrs' commercial collection, 

 has progressed into its leading position of to-day. His death lays open an 

 important position for a capable Orchid grower.— A merican Gardening. 



Cypripedium X Fausianum, a hybrid from C. X Dauthieri and 

 C. X calophyllum (Orch. Rev., i. p. 286) commemorates the deceased, 

 gentleman. 



