304 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
September, 1889, when it was laid aside asa near ally of M. attenuata, 
Rchb. f. Its habitat, however, was not furnished. In the above work, M. 
Laucheana is referred to the section Coriacee, while M. attenata is placed 
in section Minute, but they are too nearly allied to be thus separated, 
though it must be admitted that these two sections almost pass into each 
other. The plant figured under the latter name also does not agree with 
the original form figured in the Botanical Magazine (t. 6273), differing in 
having a purple-striped perianth. M. Laucheana has also some purple 
stripes, and longer, deep yellow tails. Their precise relation to each 
other may be more exactly ascertained in the future. 
= R.AsK, 
DENDROBIUM TAURINUM VAR. AMBOINENSE. 
Amonc the plants collected in Amboyna by the late David Burke, who died 
there of cholera a few months ago, is a large Dendrobium, which is 
apparently a form of the Philippine D. taurinum,. for, though differing in 
colour, it agrees well in other respects. It is now flowering with Messrs. James 
Veitch & Sons, at Chelsea. The Philippine plant has greenish white sepals, 
dull purple petals, and a rose-pink lip with some darker markings on the disc, . 
but there is also a variety in cultivation of a much paler colour, a sort of 
light purplish pink. The present one has the sepals greenish yellow 
slightly suffused with bronzy brown, the petals deep purple-brown, also the 
side lobes of the lip, while the front lobe more nearly resembles the sepals in 
colour. This difference in colour gives it a very distinct appearance. It 
quite agrees with the original form in habit, attaining a height of five to ten 
feet, and bearing numerous long racemes at the apex of the pseudobulbs. 
Thus it is a very stately plant, though too large for general cultivation. Its 
discovery enlarges the known area of the species. 
D. taurinum was originally discovered in the Philippine Islands by 
Cuming, and sent to Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, who flowered it for the 
first time in cultivation in October, 1842, the specific name being given in 
allusion to a fancied resemblance in the flowers to the face and horns of a 
bull. Messrs. Veitch remark of it :—‘‘ Although one of the most remarkable 
of Dendrobes, it is now seldom seen in collections, owing chiefly to the 
difficulty in establishing newly-imported plants, a circumstance probably due 
to the situation selected by this species in its native country; this is almost 
invariably on the Mangrove trees in the swamps skirting the sea-shore, and 
where, during severe storms, the plants are sometimes washed by the spray. 
In such places the stems of Dendrobium taurinum often attain a height of 
ten feet, and produce racemes two feet long.’ Veitch Man. Orch., iil., p- 79: 
It evidently requires similar treatment to D. Phalznopsis and others from 
this region, BR: A. R. 
