145 
DENDROBIUM AGGREGATUM. 
(AGGREGATE-FLOWERED DENDROBIUM. ) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
ORCHID ACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Vide vol. iii. p. 77. 
Specific Character. — Pseudo-bulbs cgespitose 7 one-leaved, ovate, furrowed, stipitate, with an ash-grey 
cuticle. Leaves ohlong, emarginate, coriaceous, nerved. Racemes lateral, partially drooping, 
many-flowered. Flowers with two ovate petals, which are generally longer and broader than the 
sepals. Labellum nearly entire, broader than long, concave at the base, pubescent. 
Throughout the vast continent of India, which is well known to be pecu- 
liarly opulent in floral beauties, the genus Dendrobium is most extensively diffused, 
forming one of the gayest of its numerous natural charms. Our pages have already 
been enriched by plates of some of its superlatively attractive species ; and while 
the one now brought forward is equal to almost any we have yet published, we 
possess drawings of others, still superior to the present, which will appear at no 
distant period. 
In an extensive group like Dendrobium, it might be expected that a considerable 
variation in structure and habit would occur. This is not, however, the case to 
any great degree. The majority of species are decidedly caulescent, differing only 
very slightly in size and form. We use the word slightly in a qualified sense, 
meaning that they exhibit a kind of structure which, in its leading features, is 
common to all ; but which is, nevertheless, so modified in certain species, as to 
render the whole of them easily distinguishable by an experienced eye, even though 
destitute of flowers. 
There are a few comparatively insignificant species with terete, leaf-like stems ; 
but the other main type besides the caulescent, and that to which the subject now 
illustrated belongs, has pseudo-bulbous stems, which are more or less encircled 
with nodular rings : in some, however, these latter peculiarities are entirely 
wanting. D. aggregatum is perhaps the finest of this class ; its brilliant flowers 
VOL. VI. NO. LXVII. U 
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