﻿May, J9 o 4 .] 



THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



DENDROBIUM LIN GUI FORME. 



The vast genus Dendrobium contains a remarkably polymorphic assem- 

 blage of species, so far as habit is concerned, and the one here figured is 

 quite anomalous in this respect— in fact it is difficult at the first glance to 

 say whether the vegetative organs shown are pseudobulbs or leaves. It is 

 a very graceful little plant when in flower, and makes itself quite at home if 

 suspended in a moderately warm house and treated like others which prefer 

 a similar position. It is a native of Queensland and New South Wales, 

 and was described over a century ago by Swartz, under the name of D. 

 linguiforme {Kongl. Vet. Acad., 1800, p. 247), and afterwards figured from 

 dried specimens in Smith's Exotic Botany (i. t. 11). The name refers to the 

 shape of the short, very fleshy leaves. It was introduced to cultivation 



Fig. 23. Dendrobium linguiforme. 



about the year i860, by Mr. Hill, of the Brisbane Botanic Garden, who 

 sent living plants from Moreton Bay to Kew, where they flowered, and a 

 figure shortly afterwards appeared in the Botanical Magazine (t. 5249). 

 The singular fleshy leaves are borne alternately on short creeping rhizomes, 

 but the pseudobulbs are absent, and the flowers are white, with some pink 

 spots on the lip and a little yellow on the disc. It is probably most allied 

 to D. cucumerinum (Bot. Mag., t. 4619), which Lindley described as much 

 resembling a heap of little cucumbers, whence the name was derived. 

 Lindley formed the section Rhizobium to contain these two plants, 

 together with D. pugioniforme and D. rigidum, two other species not 



