144 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



hrandtii, a species which we have already described. Both are amongst the most effective 

 fine-leaved subjects that have been introduced in recent years, and are especially adapted 

 for use in large houses, where their presence never fails to give a pleasing contrast to 

 the ordinary run of either flowering or ornamental foliaged plants. Being yet anything 

 but common in cultivation, there has not been much opportunity of: seeing their 

 infl orescen.ce, but recently the male as well as the female cones of the subject of our 

 notice have been produced. Of the former we saw a noble example at Handcross Park, 

 Crawley, Sussex, in the fine collection of plants grown by C. Warren, Esq. 



Cones pedunculate. Male cone pale yellow, narrowly cylindric, one to two feet or more long, two and a 

 half to three inches wide ; scales spreading, oblong-quadrate to deltoid, apex obliquely deflexed, subpeltate 

 triangular, three quarters to an inch wide, inferior margin more or less crenate-denticulate. Female cone greenish- 

 orange to apricot-coloured, ovoid-cylindric, as nrnch as a foot and a half long by seven inches wide ; scales long-stalked, 

 apex obliquely deflexed, peltate, subquadrangular, about an inch and a half across lower margin, erose-dentate at 

 the middle. Seeds ovoid, somewhat angular, ultimately protruded between the separating scales of the mature 

 cone, about one inch and a quarter long, testa crimson. — Botanical Magazine, 6654. 



Dendrobium olavatujl Wallicli, Cat. No. 2004. A magnificent epiphyte with 

 bright yellow flowers and a dark eye. Native of Assam. Introduced by Thomas Denne, 

 Esq. (Fig. 184, a single flower forced open and magnified.) 



This very fine plant was received from Assam by Thomas Denne, Esq., of Hythe in Kent, and flowered with him. 

 The stems are terete, from eighteen inches to two feet long. The flowers appear in groups of five in number, in 

 close heads, from among some hard scales ; and are separated by large membranous bracts almost as in D. densi- 

 florum ; when the racemes are full grown their rachis is zigzag, and the broad membranous bracts are full as long as 

 the joints of the rachis. The expanded flowers are about two inches across when flattened, but as the parts spread 

 but little from the column they appear smaller. They are of a rich orange-yellow, with a broad double brown blotch 

 in the middle of the lip. The sepals are much narrower than the petals, which are not at all fringed. The lip, when 

 flattened, is broader than long, slightly three-lobed, round, hairy over all the upper surface, and strongly ciliated, 

 though not fringed at the edge. Mr. Denne most truly says that, "It is certainly the handsomest of the orange 

 Dendrobes, being superior to D. Paxtoni in size and texture and also in the markings of the lip, though it has not the 

 fimbriated edge." The affinity of this species is with D. fimbriatum and moschatum, to the latter of which we were 

 formerly led by bad specimens to refer it as a synonyme. From D. fimbriatum it differs in having ■ large mem- 

 branous bracts, and no deep fringes to the lip. In its bracts it agrees with D. moschatum, and in the flowers 

 appearing from within hard scales, but the lip has not the inflexed edge and slipper-like form of that species, and 

 the racemes are much shorter. 



184 



