AERIDES VIRENS. 
(Dark-green leaved Air Plant.) 
Class. Order. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
ORCHID ACEiE. 
, Generic Character.— Perianth spreading or closed. 
Sepals lateral, often oblique at the base, having a claw 
connate with the column. Lip with a claw, jointed to 
the column, saccate or spurred, three-lobed ; lateral 
lobes short ; middle one cucullate or awl-shaped, or 
shortly tumid, or partially arched. Column reclining 
on the ovary, short winged. Anthers two-celled. Pol- 
len-masses two, furrowed at the back. Caudiculce 
broad and filiform; gland peltate, subrotund. 
Specific Character.— Plant an epiphyte. Leaves 
distichous, channelled, broad and thick, obtuse, and 
obliquely terminated. Raceme pendulous, many-flow- 
ered. Flowers fragrant, white, blotched and spotted 
with bright crimson-lilac. Sepals obovate, obtuse. 
Petals the same as the sepals. Lip large ; lateral lobes 
medium size, denticulate at the top ; intermediate 
one larger, somewhat furrowed, and denticulate at 
the top. 
This beautiful Orchid has been an inhabitant of our stoves since 1842, when 
it was introduced, from Java, by Messrs. Loddiges, of the Hackney Nurseries. 
There is a general similitude in the foliage of the plants of this genus, by which 
they are not, when out of flower, very readily distinguished from, each other, but this 
species may be known by its leaves assuming a peculiarly rich and deep glossy green, 
hence the name virens. 
The flowers are about the size of those of A. cornutum, figured in the " Botanical 
Register," for 1485, and they emit a peculiarly delicious perfume. The sepals and 
petals are of a clear French white, and each has a large, irregular, purplish-crimson 
blotch at the tip, and here and there a faint tinge of lilac. The middle lobe of the 
lip is marked with crimson-lilac down the centre to the full extent of the tongue, with 
paler denticulate edges, and the two side lobes are blotched with pale lilac, and 
spotted with bright crimson. 
For attractive qualities, this species can be scarcely considered inferior to either 
the old A. cornutum, figured as above; A. quinquevulnerum, "Mag. Bot.," viii., 
t. 241 ; A. Broohii, "Mag. Bot.," ix., t. 146 ; A. maculatum, "Mag. Bot.," xii. } 
t. 49 ; or any other species yet introduced. 
A. virens flourishes in a very damp atmosphere during the season of growth, and 
is treated in the same manner as the other species figured in this work ; namely, 
