Aiig-List, 1915-] 



Till' ORCHID WORLD. 



255 



ARACHNANTHE CATHCARTII. 



TO meet the exigencies of a progressive 

 science like Botany, a change in the 

 nomenclature of certain plants is 

 often unavoidable. Several causes may arise 

 to necessitate such a change, for example — 

 the genus to which a species is first referred 

 may not have been clearly circumscribed, or 

 it may have been thrown into confusion by 

 the addition of species that do not conform to 

 its essential characters. Vanda Cathcartii is 

 an instance of this; so long ago as 1862 the 

 late Professor Reichenbach challenged the 

 propriety of referring this plant to Vanda, 

 and created for its reception a new genus 

 which he called Esmeralda ; but the change 

 seems to have attracted but little notice till 

 the revision of the Orchidece was undertaken 

 by Mr. Bentham for the Genera PI ant arum. 

 That eminent systematist, although agreeing 

 with Reichenbach as to the propriety of 

 removing it from Vanda, found it unnecessary 

 to adopt his Esmeralda, as the flowers 

 conform sufficiently to Blume's much older 

 genus, Arachnanthe ; and he accordingly 

 brought it under that genus. 



The following particulars of its origin are 

 given by Sir J. D. Hooker in the Botanical 

 Magazine, sub. t. 5845: — "It is a native of 

 hot, damp, shady valleys in the eastern 

 Himalaya, delighting in the neighbourhood of 

 waterfalls where it is exposed to constant 

 humidity ; it was discovered by myself m 

 1848, and transmitted to the Calcutta Botanic 

 Garden, where, after flowering, it was sent off 

 to England, but did not survive the voyage. 

 Repeated attempts were subsequently made 

 to introduce it with more or less success, and 

 the honour of first flowering it in this country 

 is, I believe, due to Messrs. Veitch, whose 

 plant produced one flower in March of the 

 present year (1870)." From that time forward 

 Arachnanthe Cathcartii has occasionally had 

 a place in many Orchid collections both in 

 Europe and America, and the estimation in 

 which it has been held by horticulturists has 

 found expression in the numerous coloured 

 plates of it that have appeared in gardening 

 publications. It usually flowers in the early 



months of the year, but it is not an uncommon 

 occurrence for its racemes to be produced 

 much later, and even in opposite seasons. 

 The species is dedicated to the memory of 

 Mr. James F. Cathcart, of the Indian Civil 

 Service, an ardent amateur naturalist, and one 

 of the earliest explorers of the rich flora of the 

 eastern Himalaya. For materials for descrip- 

 tion and figuring we are indebted to Mr. C. J. 

 Lucas, of Warnham Court, Horsham. 



Cultural Note. — Arachnanthe Cathcartii 

 has always been a difficult plant to import 

 alive, and even when it survives the voyage to 

 Europe the most solicitous care on the part of 

 the cultivator frequently fails to preserve it 

 alive for any length of time in the glass 

 houses of this country. At least two circum- 

 stances may be adduced as probable causes 

 of failure : the impossibility of approximately 

 imitating the climatic conditions under which 

 it thrives in its native home, and the delicate 

 constitution of the plant itself derived from 

 its environment, by which it is deprived of the 

 hardening influence of direct sunlight. 

 Thickly wooded gorges in close proximity to 

 streams where light is of the most sombre 

 description, quite beyond the warming 

 influence of the sun, and where a continual 

 high state of humidity during the whole year 

 is maintained, are one and all necessary to its 

 existence. From May till October the forests 

 are maintained in a constant state of satura- 

 tion by a drenching and almost continuous 

 rainfall, while, during the other half of the 

 year, a high degree of humidity is kept up by 

 the splashing of the stream a few feet off, and 

 the dense canopy of foliage overhead that 

 checks evaporation. Hence it is that good 

 specimens, growing freely and flowering 

 regularly, are rarely seen in British Orchid 

 collections, and therefore it is with much 

 satisfaction that we are enabled to record an 

 instance of the successful cultivation of this 

 Orchid in the garden of Sir George Macleay 

 at Pendell Court, Bletchingley. Here the 

 plant is trained against a wall partly over a 

 water tank in a small stove, where the 

 temperature during winter is about 12 to 

 15 degs. C. (55 to 60 degs. F.), and the 

 wall always more or less damp from the 



