36 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



plant in this country, is alone worth a visit to 

 Mundham. Discovered by Sir Hugh Low in 

 Borneo, this plant is truly remarkable. In its 

 native country it dehghts in high trees on the 

 banks of rivers, thick forests, and other humid 

 places. Owing to the length of time required 

 for transmission 



very few plants 

 are alive when ar- 

 riving at this 

 country. The re- 

 produced photo- 

 graph was taken 

 a few years ago, 

 since when this 

 wonderful speci- 

 men has greatl}- 

 increased in size. 

 It has now seven 

 new growths, and 

 when flowering 

 during the month 

 of August this 

 year it produced 

 no less than thir- 

 teen long stems 

 having an average 

 length of eight 

 feet and carrying 

 an aggregate of 

 368 flowers. These 

 long stems occupied 

 a period of eight 

 weeks in growing, 

 or a weekly 

 average of twelve 

 inches growth. A 

 very remarkable 

 feature of this 

 plant is the pro- 

 duction of dimor- 

 phic flowers, or, in 

 other words, two 

 forms of flower on Arachnanthe 

 the same spike, for which no one has yet been 

 able to discover the cause or their usefulness 

 to the plant. The two or three blossoms at 

 the base of the spike, which are widely 

 separated from the rest, are of a tawny- 

 yellow, spotted with crimson. The rest of 



the flowers are greenish-yellow, marked 

 throughout by large irregular blotches, 

 mostly transverse, of a rich dark-brown. 



Arachnanthe Rohaniana is just now in 

 full bloom, it has two spikes with twenty- 

 nine and thirty fiow-ers respectively ; one 



spike has four of 

 the orange- 

 coloured flowers 

 at the base, and 

 the other three ; 

 hitherto the plant 

 has only borne 

 two of these 

 flowers on a spike. 

 The spikes them- 

 selves are c o n - 

 siderably longer 

 than usual and the 

 flowers much 

 finer, both forms 

 of flowers being 

 much lighter in 

 colour than those 

 of A. Lowii. The 

 plant is growing 

 very fast and 

 strong and is con- 

 siderably larger 

 than when first 

 obtained. 



Arachnanthe 

 C ' a t h c a r t i i , a 

 native of the 

 Sikkim-Hiraalayas, 

 where it grows by 

 the side of streams 

 in deep cool 

 shade, is another 

 excellent specimen 

 in this collection. 

 There are also 

 good plants of 

 T^ohaniana. A r a c h n a n the 



moschifera, Vanda Parishii, and Vanda 

 tricolor. Vanda Dearei, a rare species 

 from Ceylon, has attained the unusual 

 height of 4ft. 6in., the large flowers 

 being very attractive. Vanda Sanderiana, 

 the finest species of the genus, grows well, 



