234 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [Aucusr, 199 
be expected, has not proved correct. He indicates the altitude of the habi 
as about 600 métres. It has been subsequently figured, with a photog 
showing the plant in M. Rimestad’s Orchid Garden in Java (Gard. Ch 
1902, il. pp. 303, 306, fig. 100, with suppl. plate; Rev. Hort. Belge, 190 
p. 88, fig. 22, 23, 24). The Gardeners’ Chronicle spells the name “Rime - 
tadtiana,” which has since been widely followed, but we find that M. 
Rimestad writes his name without a final “t,” and consequently we have | 
restored the original spelling. It is certainly a very beautiful and flori- 
ferous plant, and it may be interesting to append the history of the 
species. | 
This beautiful Orchid has been known to science for over a century and — 
a half, having been figured and described by the Dutch botanist Rumphius — 
as long ago as 1750, under the name of Angraecum album majus (Herb. : 
Ambotnense, vi. p. 99, t. 43). He found the plant in the island of Amboyna, 
growing on short trees covered with moss, up which, he says, it turns likea 
rope and hangs down in entangled tufts. 
Two years later it was discovered near the watering place on the is 
western extremity of Java, by Osbeck, who touched there on his voyage - 
home from China. Specimens collected by him were forwarded to Fi 
Linnzus, who described the plant in 1753, in the first edition of his famous : 
Species Plantarum (page 593), under the name of Epidendrum amabile. — 
Osbeck remarks that the plant grew on the branches of trees on the shore, 4 
and adds: “The plant hath great white odoriferous flowers, such as! ‘ 
never observed before. I had this plant lying in my room for several days ~ 
together, but the flowers did not wither, and filled it with the most agree i 
able smell.” The dried specimens, it is interesting to note, stil] exist in the _ 
Linnean Herbarium, in an excellent state of preservation. : 
Roxburgh afterwards transferred the plant to Cymbidium, under the 
name of C. amabile (FJ. Ind. iii. p. 457). He tells us that it isa native of 
the Moluccas, whence it was introduced to the East Indian Company's 
Botanic Garden, at Calcutta, in 17098. Roxburgh died in 1822, and hie 
work was not published till afterwards. 2 
In 1825 Blume transferred it to a new genus, under the es 
Phalznopsis amabilis (Bydr. p. 294, t. 44), the generic name commemor- ; 
ating a resemblance to certain species of moths. Blume found the plant ™ 
woods near the coast of the small island of Nusa Kambangan. 
Lindley, in 1833, included the plant in his Genera and Species 
Orchidaceous Plants (p. 213), but in 1840 he unfortunately confused it with 
an allied Philippine species, which he figured under the same name . 
(Bot. Reg. 1838, t. 34). He mentioned the names of Blume, Linn#us z 
Rumphius, and then added :—.This very rare and beautiful epiphyt® 
flowered a few weeks since in the Epiphyte house of Messrs. Rollissom» f 
