206 THE ORCHID REVIEW. (JuLy, 1910 
DENDROBIUMS OF THE D. BIGIBBUM GROUP. 
THE facts given in the preceding note raise once more the question of the 
origin of D. Goldiei, for when originally described by Reichenbach in 1878, 
as a new species, it was rather enigmatically suggested that there might 
be mules in the group. It may, therefore, be interesting to review the 
different forms in the order of their appearance. 
D. BIGIBBUM was the original species of the group, and was described 
in 1852 (Lindl. in Paxt. Fl. Gard. iii. p. 25, fig. 245) from specimens intro- 
duced by Messrs. Loddiges, who flowered it in January of that year. The 
species really appeared much earlier, for, according to Reichenbach, it 
flowered at Kew as early as 1824, a beautiful drawing by F. Bauer, with 
this history, being preserved at the British Museum (Gard. Chron., 1878, il. 
p- 748). Loddiges’ plant is said to have come from Mount Adolphus, near 
Torres Straits, but from additional records and dried specimens we learn 
that it also grows at Cape Granville and Cape York in Northern Queens- 
land, on the Prince of Wales’ Island and Thursday Island, in the Torres 
Straits, and alsoin New Guinea or islands adjacent thereto. It is well 
figured in the Botanical Magazine (t. 4808). 
D. SUPERBIENS was described in 1876 (Rchb. f. in Gard. Chron., 1876, 
ii. p. 516) as a very curious novelty, imported from Northern Australia by 
Messes. James Veitch & Sons, and allied to D. bigibbum. Messrs. Veitch 
describe it asa native of the York Pensinsula and some of the Islands of the 
Torres Straits. A year later Messrs. B. S. Williams obtained an importa- 
tion from the Torres Straits, through their collector, Goldie (Orch. Alb., 
vii. t..312). The precise locality is not stated, but they remark that the 
species is also reported to have been found by Captain Broomfield on the 
Prince of Wales’ Island, situated some twenty miles from the mainland of 
Queensland. Dr. Coppinger, of H.M. Ship Alert, collected it on West 
Island. It is probably identical with D. Sumneri (F. Muell. Fragm., 
vi. p. 94), described about eight years earlier, and still imperfectly known. 
D. GoLpie1 was described two years later (Rchb. f. in Gard. Chron., 
1878, i. p. 652) from specimens imported by Messrs. B. S. Williams & Son 
through their collector, Goldie, after whom it was named. Reichenbach, 
though describing it as a new species, remarked that at first he thought it 
was a variety of D. superbiens, and suggested that there might be natural 
hybrids in the group. It came with D. superbiens, and is figured in The 
Garden (1878, ii. p. 244, t. 145), from the original plant. 
D. PHAL&NopSIS was described in 1880 (Fitzgerald in Gard. Chron.. 
1880, ii. p. 38) from a plant which flowered in the collection of Captain 
Broomfield, of Balmain, and which had been obtained near Cooktown, in 
Queensland. It is figured in Fitzgerald’s Australian Orchids (i. pt. 7, t. 5)- 
A finer form of it was afterwards collected in Timor Laut by Mr. H. O. 
