October, 1914-] 



rUE ORCHID VVORI-f) 



5 



Galeandra Devoniana. 



GALEANDRA DEVONIANA. 



IN present-day collections Galeandras are 

 rarely seen, mainly owing to the 

 difficulty experienced in growing them 

 sufficiently well to obtain results which 

 travellers tell us can be seen in the plant's 

 native home, and also because of many 

 superior hybrid Orchids recently produced. 

 However, Galeandra Devoniana is not by 

 any means to be despised, and may yet be 

 welcomed once again. 



Its first discovery was made by Schom- 

 burgk, who sent the following particulars to 

 Lindley : — "During our peregrinations we 

 have seen this plant nowhere else than on 

 the banks of the Rio Negro, a tributary of 

 the Amazon, where in the neighbourhood of 

 Barcellos we found it growing in large 

 clusters on the trees which lined the river, 

 sometimes on the Mauritia aculeata, or even 

 on the ground where the soil consisted of 

 vegetable mould. It was so luxuriant in 



growth that some of the large clusters of 

 stems which sprouted from a common root 

 were from ten to twelve feet in circumference. 

 The stems were often from five to six feet 

 high ; at the lower part almost of a purple 

 appearance but changing into green higher 

 up. As the flower is not only larger than the 

 generality of its tribe, but handsome, I availed 

 myself of this opportunity of naming it m 

 honour of the Duke of Devonshire, one 

 of the most successful cultivators of this, 

 one of the most interesting tribes among 

 monocotyledonous plants." 



This species was subsequently detected by 

 the same energetic explorer in British Guiana, 

 growing on the trunks of trees on the banks 

 of the river Berbice ; and afterwards by 

 Spruce and Wallace in the same locality in 

 which it was first discovered by Schomburgk, 

 the first-named of whom sent living plants 

 to Kew in 185 1. 



The plants require a considerable amount 

 of heat during the growing season, but much 



VOL. V. 



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