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VANDA TESSELLATA. 
(tessellated-flowered VANDA.) 
CLASS. OllDKR. 
GYNANDRTA. MONANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
ORCHIDACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Perianth showy, spreading. Petals and sepals nearly equal. Lahellum 
having a pouch or inversely conical spur, with the hase continuous to the column, partially three- 
lobed ; middle lobe fleshy. Column thick, free, shortened, with an obtuse beak. Anthers two- 
celled. Pollen-masses two, obliquely two-lobed, with a linear caudicula, and a nearly round gland. 
Specific Character. — Plant epiphytal, caulescent. Leaves distichous, coriaceous, obliquely three- 
toothed at the point, linear, and recurved. Racemes erect, longer than the leaves, bearing from six 
to twelve blossoms. Flowers large and very showy. Sepals and petals oblong-obovate, undulated, 
obtuse, of a light lilac colour, marbled with brown. Labellum with the middle lobe ovate, emargi- 
nate, pale pinkish lilac, becoming purple towards the extremity. 
Synonymes : — Vanda Roxburghii, Cymbidium tesselloides. 
There is a group of Orcliidacese which develop themselves in the form of stems, 
and not of pseudo-bulbs, whose increase is effected with such difficulty, or at 
intervals so distant, as to render their diffusion the work of an age, and even a still 
longer period. Their production of flowers is, at the same time, so generally 
restricted to large or old specimens, that when they are really and strikingly beau- 
tiful, their value is scarcely ever felt, because it is but rarely exhibited. 
Vanda tessellata, the admirable plant of which a figure is now given, constitutes 
a prominent object in the above class. It has been cultivated at least thirty years in 
British stoves, and was among the species which first called forth the skill of our 
cultivators ; but it is not even at this day common in collections, and its noble 
flowers are seldom witnessed. 
In Messrs. Loddiges' extensive establishment, we have often been gratified with 
the fine plants of this species and its variety which have there bloomed in such 
profusion and perfection. From these gentlemen, too, we have adopted the name 
of V. tessellata, though it is indifferently called by this appellation or F. Roxburghii^ 
as we consider the former more expressive of its character. The richly checkered 
blossoms are not, however, always of the colours represented in our plate. There 
is a variety at Messrs. Loddiges', and doubtless in other gardens, with a mixture 
of light brown and a greenish hue in its sepals and petals, and a lip of which the 
VOL. VII.— NO. LXXXIV. M M 
