12 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
NOTES ON ORCHIDS IN THE JUNGLE. 
By MAJOR-GENERAL E. S. BERKELEY. 
(Continued from Vol. I. page 336.) 
Tue Orchids of the Neilgherries and the adjoining ranges of mountains in 
Southern India are very interesting, and, as the geographical distribution of 
plants is always worth noting, there is an additional interest in the fact that 
several of the Orchids in these hills are found in Ceylon. 
At the top of Dodabetta, one of the highest points in the Neilgherry 
range, growing in large masses on the rocks and sometimes on old stunted 
stems of Rhododendron arboreum, is found the best form of Ccelogyne 
odoratissima. This plant is also found in Ceylon, but the bulbs are about 
double the size of those of the Ceylon plant, and the flower spikes corre- 
spondingly larger. On account of the delicious scent of its white flowers, it 
is a plant well worth growing. This species grows best in the coolest house, 
with the Masdevallias, and, indeed, this is its natural position in an English 
STO OTE 
collection, as in its native home it is not at all unusual to find the plant — 
covered with hoar frost in the morning. 
In most of the hill forests in this range Calanthe Masuca, another plant 
common also to Ceylon, is found. It occurs at from two thousand feet to 
six thousand feet elevation, and the plants in the higher altitudes are 
stronger than those growing lower down. 
Ipsea speciosa, an Orchid supposed to be confined to Ceylon, is also 
found in the Neilgherries, on the slopes of the hills at the top of Walla- 
Ghaut, at about an elevation of four thousand feet. Colonel Beddome was 
the first to detect this variety as indigenous to India, but I do not know 
whether he has ever recorded its habitat. 
Lower down Walla-Ghaut, at an altitude of about three thousand feet, is 
found in great quantities Acanthephippium bicolor. This is another Ceylon 
Orchid, which I think is not noted by Wight as growing in the Neil- 
gherries, and which has, so far as I am aware, not before been recorded as 
existing in India. It grows high up on the banks of the stream, among the 
decayed leaves and fallen sticks. Its roots permeate this decayed vegetable 
matter, and I found it comparatively loose, the roots not attaching them- 
selves to the ground underneath the decayed leaves. 
On the huge granite boulders which stand up in great masses in the 
middle of the Walla-Ghaut river is found, growing in great profusion, 
Coelogyne corrugata, a plant we do not often see in English collections, but 
which is well worth growing. As this Orchid is found where there is 4 
tremendous rainfall, and considerable amount of heat, it is not advisable to 
grow it in too cool a house. It does very well in the intermediate house in 
England. 
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