﻿THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



[November, 1904.. 



" Orchidea:," but no clue to its genus is given, and Franchet & Savatier 

 do not carry the determination any further (Enum. PL Jap., ii., p. 684). 

 The plant has recently been collected at Shidzu, in Nikko, by H. Takeda, 

 in July, 1903. In looking up its history I find that it was described by 

 Reichenbach as long ago as 1876, as a new genus, under the name of 

 Dactylostalix ringens {Bot. Zeit., 1876, p. 74), from specimens collected at 

 Kii, Japan, by Rein. The author described it as intermediate between 

 Eulophia and Cremastra, which probably led Bentham, who had not seen 

 the plant, to reduce it to Cremastra {Gen. Plant, hi., p. 538), with which,, 

 however, it has no affinity. It is clearly an ally of Calypso, and as a matter 

 of fact Maximowicz referred it to that genus, under the name of C. 

 japonica, but I have not succeeded in finding a description, and believe 

 that the name was never published. The ticket is inscribed " Maximowicz, 

 Iter secundum. Japonica ; Nippon, Fudyi Yama, 1S64, leg. Tschonoski." 

 The differences pointed out appear to separate it from Calypso, which, 

 however, is its nearest affinity. The plant is not yet known in cultivation, 

 but it is interesting to bring together its very scattered history. 



R. A. Rolfe. 



ZYGOPETALUM MACKAII AND ITS ALLIES. 



The species that may be grouped under the above heading are very 

 handsome winter-flowering plants, whose history, unfortunately, has been 

 much confused ; and as the plant in cultivation under the name of 

 Z. Mackaii is not the true plant, which latter is now flowering very 

 ::•« v'.y ;.t k w. it may be interesting to give the history of the question. It 

 is one of those cases, like Phalasnopsis amabilis and Phaius tuberculosus, 

 where the names have been wrongly applied in gardens for so long a 

 period that it is very difficult to get them rectified. 



Zygopetalum Mackaii was originally described and figured in 1827 by 

 Dr. William Hooker {Bot. Mag., t. 2748), from materials received in 

 February, 1827, from Mr. Mackay, of the Dublin College Botanic Gardens, 

 who imported it irom Brazil. The author remarked : " It is a plant of 

 great beauty, and may be numbered among the most showy of the highly 

 interesting family of Orchidaceous plants. It is so unlike in the structure 

 of its flower to any described plant, that I have no hesitation in constituting 

 of it a new genus." The generic name was given in allusion to the " union 

 of the five petals at the base." 



In 1S30 it was figured in Loddiges' Botanical Cabinet (t. 1664), the author 

 remarking: " We received this superb plant through the kindness of Mr. 

 Frederick Warre, who collected it, with many more rare articles of this, 

 family, in Brazil." 



