﻿August, 1904.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



PLATYCLINIS FILIFORMIS. 



A fine healthy specimen of Platyclinis filiformis with nearly one hundred 

 flower spikes is now flowering in Sir Trevor Lawrence's collection at 

 Burford. This lovely species was discovered between sixty and seventy 

 years ago, and flowered for the first time in Europe in 1841. Coming from 

 the Philippine Islands, it was, for many years, considered necessary to 

 subject the plant to the highest temperature available in our Orchid houses, 

 in order to grow the plant to perfection, but in the majority of cases the foliage 

 became infested with insect pests, and the plants gradually deteriorated. 

 The specimen plant above mentioned has, for the past ten years, been 

 suspended to the roof of the Intermediate House, where such Orchids as 

 Miltonias, Epidendrums, and Sobralias are usually cultivated. Immediately 

 growth commences the plant is taken down daily and subjected to a 

 thorough damping overhead with a fine sprayer, by which practice the 

 plant is never attacked with red spider, and the foliage is kept fresh and 

 healthy. Even during the resting season it is advisable to sponge the 

 leaves occasionally, and to spray them over two or three times every week. 

 Overhead syringing is not advisable while the plant is in flower, but the 

 leaves should be sponged instead. While growing, the plant should be 

 freely supplied with water at the root, the quantity being diminished in the 

 dormant period just sufficiently to keep the compost moist. Shallow pans 

 are preferable to Teak wood baskets, and these should be well drained, and 

 repotting should be done within a short time after flowering. A compost 

 of fibrous peat, leaf soil, and sphagnum moss in equal parts, with the 

 addition of a few broken crocks and silver sand, well mixed together, will 

 suit its requirements admirably. The flower stalks of this species are very 

 slender, and the raceme bears from 80 to 100 flowers of a uniform canary 

 colour. The individual flowers are among the smallest in the Orchid family, 

 but the graceful racemes produce a most striking and pleasing object. 



P. uncata is similar in habit to P. filiformis, the flowers being also very 

 small, but of a greenish colour. Its flowering season is in winter. P. 

 glumacea was discovered about the same time as P. filiformis, but in 

 appearance it is quite distinct from that species. It blooms during March 

 and April, and the pendulous racemes of yellowish white flowers have a very 

 pleasant fragrance, very similar to newly mown hay. It has often been 

 remarked by visitors that the racemes when fully developed have the 

 appearance of long ears of corn. P. glumacea valida is very robust and 

 distinct in appearance, with leaves nearly twice as broad as those of the 

 type, but the flowers of both plants are almost identical. P. Cobbiana 

 is another very pretty and distinct species. It was introduced about 

 twenty-five years ago by Messrs. Low, through their well known collector, 



