SEPTEMBER, 1903.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 279. 
RHYNCHOSTYLIS RETUSA VAR. HEATHII. 
A very beautiful albino of Rhynchostylis retusa appeared a few years ago, 
about which very little has been heard for some time, and it is interesting to- 
note that more plants of it have been discovered. The earliest record that 
we know of appeared in 1885, when it was described under the name of 
Saccolabium Heathii (Gard. Chron., 1885, ii, p. 369), as follows :— 
‘“* SACCOLABIUM HEATHII.— We have received a white bloom of a 
Saccolabium under the above name, which appears to bea variety of S. 
Blumei. The colour is a pure white, and the spike, as seen in an 
accompanying photograph, of great length. It will be a welcome addition 
to the genus.” 
On August gth, 1887, it appeared at a meeting of the R.H.S., from the 
collection of Baron Schroder, among whose exhibits was ‘‘a cut spike 10 
inches long of Saccolabium Heathii, a lovely pure white spike of bloom identi- 
cal in size with that of S. Blumei as usually seen.” (Gard. Chron., 1887, ii, 
p- 200). And it is added :—‘‘ It will become popular in time.” 
In May 1887, it is said that a plant of it was sold for 150 guineas 
(Watson, Orchids, ed. i, p. 443). In the recent edition of the work, by Mr. 
Chapman, we fail to find even a mention of the plant, and the same remark 
applies to both Veitch’s and Williams Manuals, from which it may be inferred 
that the variety is extremely rare, if not quite lost sight of. It is therefore 
the more interesting to find that Mr. Rimestad, of Malang, Java, has found 
several more plants of it, while engaged in an unsuccessful search for a 
white variety of Vanda suavis. Finding a single plant of a white variety 
among an abundance of the typical form, he cortinued to search right 
through the flowering season, with the result that several more plants were 
found, after which the search had to be abandoned, as the albino cannot 
be distinguished when out of flower. Next year the search was continued 
over a large area, and three additional plants only were found, and it is 
evident that the variety is rare, as in the case of albinos generally. 
The rediscovery of the variety is interesting, and plants may be expected 
in Europe in due time. Rhynchostylis retusa is more commonly known in 
cultivation under the name of Saccolabium Blumei, and is one of the most 
beautiful species of the group to which it belongs, and the effect of a pure 
white variety like the specimen already figured (Orch. Rev., ix, p. 281) can 
easily be imagined. It is one of the most widely diffused of Indian 
epiphytal Orchids, and less variable than might be expected, and the three 
species recognised by Lindley, namely, Saccolabium Blumei, S. guttatum, 
and S. premorsum, are now by common consent regarded as forms of a 
single one. 
4. ee 
