April, H)i5.] 



THE ORCHID WORIJ). 



147 



plants of P. sumatrana, of which 1 possess 

 four or five varieties, and for which Sourabaya 

 does not seem a suitable habitat, the alba 

 form seems to feel itself perfectly at home 

 here, and the blossom is moreover fairly large. 

 I^ater on I trust to be able to send you 

 a photograph depicting my Phatenopsis 

 violacea var. alba." The original discoverer 

 of P. sumatrana was the Dutch naturalist, Dr. 

 Korthals, formerly at the head of the 

 scientific staff commissioned to investigate the 

 natural history of the Dutch possessions in 

 the Malay Archipelago, who met with it in 

 southern Sumatra some time prior to 1839. 

 His sketch of it, preserved at Leyden, was all 

 that- was known of it till it was re-discovered 

 by Teijsman in 1859 along with P. violacea, 

 in the Sumatrian province of Palembang, and 

 sent by him to the Botanic garden attached 

 to the University of Leyden, under the name 

 P. zebrina, where it flowered for the first time 

 in Europe in 186 1, one plant only surviving 

 the journey. It was introduced into England 

 by Messrs. Low and Co., in 1864, and 

 flowered for the first time in the collection of 

 Mr. John Day, at Tottenham, who exhibited 

 it at the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 May 30tE, 1865, and received a First-class 

 Certificate. In 1881 it was detected by 

 Curtis, at that time collecting for Messrs. 

 Veitch in the Malay Archipelago, in the hot, 

 damp forests of Palembang, growing on trees 

 overhanging" streams and water-courses, 

 generally on the trunks and much shaded, 

 sometimes associated with P. violacea. 



1^ 



Sarcochilus BERKELEYI.~The genus 

 Sarcochilus as reconstituted by Bentham in 

 the Genera Plantaricm includes about thirty 

 species, many of which had been previously 

 distributed among several genera, the 

 founders of these relying chiefly upon 

 the form of the labellum and the habit of 

 the plant, which vary from species to species ; 

 but the discovery of other species modifying 

 the value 'of these characters suggested the 

 propriety of uniting them all under one genus. 

 The species now included in Sarcochilus are 

 spread over India, Malaysia, Australia, and 



Sarcochilus Berl^eleyi. 



the islands m the South Pacific Ocean. The 

 generic name signifies fle?hy-lip. S. Berkeleyi 

 was discovered by Maj.-Gen. E. S. Berkeley 

 in several islands m the Mala\- Archipelago. 

 The flowers are creamy-white with a purple 

 stain on the labellum. 



^ 



Sarcochilus Fitzgeraldi. — This species 

 IS dedicated to Robert Fitzgerald, of Sydne}-, 

 a well-known authority on Australian Orchids, 

 who gives the following account: — "It was 

 discovered by my=elf m a deep gorge of the 

 mountains at the head of the Billinger river, 

 associated with a strangely proliferous form 

 of Dendrobium Kingianum and clumps of 

 Liparis reflexa. It is found within the spray 

 of the Naroo Falls and the surrounding 



