NEW AND BAKE SPECIES OF MALAYAN PLANTS. 199 



ARUNDINAS. 



The genus Arundina is a very troublesome one as regards 

 species as the forms seem to run into each other and though 

 easy to distinguish in the wild state, herbarium specimens on 

 which much has been based are very unsatisfactory as a rule, 

 and even Lindley got the species very much mixed up. 



Arundina bambusifolia, Lindl. Bot. Reg. xxvii. Misc. 2, based on 

 the Cymbidium bambusifolium of Roxburgh., is the common 

 Indian species of which I have seen numerous specimens and 

 Roxburgh's drawings. It is a very tall and stout species about 

 5-7 feet tall with large pink flowers 2-3 in. across, with the 

 sepals and petals rather narrow, the latter not much wider 

 than the sepals. This plant is well figured in Bot. Mag. t. 

 7284 and William's Orchid Album t. 139. 



Arundina densa, Lindl. Bot. Reg. xxviii. t. 38, was based on a 

 plant sent to Loddiges by Cuming and has been accredited 

 to Singapore as its place of origin. The specimens in Herb. 

 Kew in Cuming's herbarium are numbered 2058, Island of 

 Bohol in the Philippines. I have seen nothing like it from 

 the Philippines at all and it is exactly like the superb plant 

 from Mt. Ophir where Cuming also collected. The Mt. Ophir 

 plant which also grows on Gunong Kerbau and other Perak 

 hills is remarkable for the large size of the flowers, very broad 

 ovate petals, large lip and very rich colour. It is the finest 

 cultural species of the genus, the flowers resembling those of 

 a LaeJia. 



It used to be much persecuted on Mt. Ophir, every one 

 who ascended that mountain brought down bundles of it and 

 all the best of the Spatlioglottis aurea too till there was but 

 little left. Besides this very fine form, we also get a smaller 

 paler but very attractive plant on all our higher hills in the 

 Peninsula. It specially thrives on gravelly islets in the moun- 

 tain streams where it is often very plentiful. In this form 

 the petals are much narrower than in the Ophir plant and 

 colouring paler and the plant usually only about 3 feet tall 

 with narrower leaves. This more resembles the Indian bam- 

 busifolia. It is impossible however, to separate it specifically 

 from the Ophir form which I take to be the plant intended by 

 Lindley as densa, though the figure in the Botanical Register 

 does not do it justice. Both forms of this plant were in com- 

 mon cultivation in Singapore, but were not as easy to pro- 

 pagate as the next species, and were apt to die out after a 

 time. 



Arundina speciosa, Bl. Bijdr. p. 401, t. 73. 



I was misled at one time into thinking that this was the 

 same plant as bamousiiolia and as I knew that a small flower- 

 ed Arundina was very common and conspicuous in Java, and 



R. A. Soc, No. 82, 1920. 



