AUGUST, 1¢03.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 248 
7 
DENDROBIUM BENSON. 
DENDROBIUM BENSON# is an extremely beautiful species that has the 
reputation of being difficult to cultivate for long together. Recently 
imported plants, however, flower with the greatest profusion, and such a 
one is now illustrated, from the collection of R. I. Measures, Esq., 
Cambridge Lodge, Camberwell, the photograph having been kindly sent by 
Mr. Smith, Mr. Measures’ able gardener. It is a handsome specimen, 
being literally wreathed in flowers, and the bulbs appear to be attached to 
a shallow raft, with a very small amount of fibrous compost. The species 
was discovered by Colonel Benson, in British Burma, and sent to Messrs. 
James Veitch & Sons, in 1866. The locality is given by the discoverer as 
Fic. 40. DENDROBIUM. BENSON #. 
mountains near Tongou, west of Prome, in the Arracan hills, at an altitude 
of about 1500 feet, and it extends southwards as far as the latitude of 
Moulmein. The late Major-Gen. Berkeley states that the form found in the 
Kareen hills, not far from Shoaghyn, is immensely superior to the form 
found by Benson, the bulbs being stout and plump as compared with the 
form from the Arracan hills (Orch. Rev., iii, p. 68), and it is this stouter 
form that is here figured. It is probable that the difficulty of cultivating 
the plant arises from improper treatment, for Mr. James Cypher remarks :— 
‘I have grown it for eight years, and at the end of that period had finer 
bulbs than those imported. I believe that many, or nearly all, are lost by 
