﻿March, , 9 o 4 .] 



THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



69 



DENDROBIUM CYMBIDIOIDES AND D. TRIFLORUM. 



It appears that there are two allied plants in cultivation under the name of 

 Dendrobium cymbidioides, and when I was at Glasnevin last year they 

 were pointed out to me by Mr. Moore, and although not then in flower it 

 was easy to see that they were distinct. Both are now flowering together, 

 which enables the matter to be cleared up. They belong to the section 

 Sarcopodium, which is characterised by its ovoid diphyllous pseudobulbs. 



D. cymbidioides appeared in cultivation about fifty years ago, and was 

 figured in the Botanical Magazine (t. 4755), when its history was given as 

 follows :— " A plant very little known, either in our gardens or herbaria, of 

 which we received living specimens from Messrs. Rollisson, of the Tooting 

 Nursery, without any name. It proves to be the Desmotrichum cym- 

 bidioides of Blume, native of the lofty wooded mountains of Gede and 

 Salak in Java, a genus of that author of which all the species have, we 

 think with propriety, by Dr. Lindley, been incorporated with or restored to 

 Dendrobium. Dr. Lindley had indeed seen no specimens ; but drawings of 

 this were sent to him by Professor Reinwardt, and of a closely allied species, 

 Desmotrichum triflorum, ' scarcely differing from this, but in its uniformly 

 tetragonal pseudobulbs and cream-coloured flowers always appearing in 

 threes.' " A figure of the species also appears in Miquel's Choix dcs PI antes 



D. triflorum has remained an almost unknown species down to the 

 present time, but on comparing the plants sent to Kew by Mr. Moore, I 

 find that one of them agrees with the drawing sent by Reinwardt to Lindley, 

 except as to the number of flowers, and also that it is the D. cymbidioides 

 of most gardens, having been twice figured as such (Gard. Chron., 1896, 

 i. p. 581, fig. 90; and Cogn. Did. Orch., Dendrob., t. 17), and that it 

 has been in cultivation since at least 1889, when it flowered both with Mr. 

 Moore and with M. Van Imschoot, at Ghent. The latter stated that he 

 had received it from Mr. Witte, of Leyden, under the name of " Ccelogyne 

 ocellata var., Java," but whether this represents its original introduction is, 



Although nearly allied, the differences between the two plants are very 

 marked. D. cymbidioides has short elliptical leaves, greenish yellow sepals 

 and petals, and the lip nearly white, with about four dull purple stripes on 

 the side lobes, and the front lobe broadly ovate, with a bright yellow area 

 at its base and in front of the crest. D. triflorum has oblong, much longer 

 and narrower leaves, much narrower straw yellow sepals and petals, the 

 side lobes of the lip almost wholly dull purple, and the front lobe much 

 longer and narrower. The crests are also quite different in the two plants. 

 They are both handsome species, with very little of the appearance of 



