PROCEEDINGS. 



xvii 



cent specimen of Dendrobium speciosum. This Orchid is 

 one whose low price enables most growers to possess it, and 

 whose peculiarities of constitution generally defy all efforts 

 at making it blossom; the few r have succeeded, the many have 

 failed, although among the latter are to be reckoned some 

 of the best gardeners in the world. The plant in question 

 was about 12 feet in circumference, reckoning from the 

 ends of the flower racemes, of which it had 35, each averag- 

 ing about 75 flowers, of the most delicate cream colour, 

 veined with violet. Therefore, about 2625 of these flowers 

 were expanded or ready to expand at the same time. It is 

 impossible to do justice by words to the appearance of 

 such a specimen, nor is it easy even to imagine the extent 

 of its beauty. It might be said to be a fountain of flowers. 

 Dr. Lindley observed, that "the history of such few successes 

 and so many failures, in regard to this plant, is briefly told. 

 Many Dendrobes inhabit the hottest and dampest parts of 

 Asia, where the season of rest is short, and the temperature 

 while they are growing excessive. Hence the warmest part 

 of the stove is their habitation, and moss perpetually moist 

 their favourite soil. The object of the cultivator is to 

 imitate the jungles of the Malay Archipelago, where there 

 is not more than two or three degrees of difference in the 

 quarterly mean temperature of the year. At Singapore, for 

 example, it appears that the mean temperature ranges near 

 80° all the year round, there not being a difference of more 

 than 3f° between the means of the hottest and coldest 

 months : and at Buitenzorg, the Botanic Garden of Java, 

 the difference is said not much to exceed 2^°. But the 

 family of Dendrobes is a very large one, comprising mem- 

 bers of most dissimilar habits and constitution, some Alpine 

 species appearing upon the branches of Oaks and tree Rho- 

 dodendrons in the Himalayas, and others inhabiting the arid 

 forests of New South Wales. It is, therefore, evident that 

 the cultivation suited for species from Singapore would be 

 inapplicable to those from Australia and Northern India. 

 Inattention to this circumstance is what has produced the 

 failure of so many, and the success of so few, in the manage- 

 ment of the showy Dendrobe. That plant is wild in New 

 Holland, where it is said to occur as far south as Port 

 Jackson, and also within the tropic. It has been brought 

 from Port Bowen, in latitude 22° 50' S. The characteristic 

 of this Australian climate is long dryness, moderate mean 

 temperature, and excessive difference between the cold and 

 warm periods. It appears from Sir Thomas Mitchell's 

 observations, as quoted in the Journal of the Society, that 



