193 
VANDA TERES. 
(taper-leaved vanda.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
NATURAL order. 
ORCHID ACEJE. 
Generic Character. — Labelhim spurred, divided at the base (either short or long), always joined to the 
column, trifid ; middle lobe fleshy. Petals spreading, distinct. Pollen-masses two, obliquely 
two-lobed. 
Specific Character. — Leaves cylindrical. Racemes ascending, usually two-flowered, equal with the 
leaves. Sepals oblong, obtuse, the highest one erect, lateral ones slightly twisted under the 
labellum. Labellum conical at the base; side segments ascending, nearly truncate; middle one 
pubescent at the summit, extended, truncate, emarginate. 
It may safely be asserted that Orchidaceous Epiphytes are the most exquisitely 
beautiful of all nature's productions. Rich in every shade or variety of colour, — 
airy and fantastic, but always elegant in habit, — replete, beyond description, with 
every charm that can allure the senses, or enchant the mind ; — they totally eclipse 
all the old inhabitants of our stoves, and moreover present in their number and 
variety a field of research to the botanical student and the enquiring cultivator, 
which, from the comparatively little knowledge of them we yet possess, appears 
really illimitable. 
This unqualified assertion of the superior beauty of the tribe, will be divested 
of all semblance of bombast or exaggeration when viewed in connexion with the 
magnificent plant represented in the annexed drawing ; a plant which defies alike 
the arts of painting or description to convey an accurate and adequate idea of its 
distinguished merits. It is indeed an object that is scarcely surpassed in beauty 
(although it is exceeded in size) by any of the splendid family to which it belongs ; 
but, being unfortunately of rather slow growth, and likewise difficult to propagate, 
it is at present confined to the collections of the more enthusiastic cultivators. 
To a person unacquainted with the habits of Orchidaceous plants, the one here 
figured must appear a perfect phenomenon, and such an individual would be ready 
to imagine that the drawing was taken from the plant while in a leafless state ; nor 
VOL. V. NO. LVII. C C 
