169 
DENDROBIUM PAXTONI. 
(paxton's dendrobium.) 
class. order. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
ORCHID ACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Vide vol. iii. p. 77. 
Specjfic Character. — Plant epiphytal, caulescent. Stems terete, furrowed. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, 
acuminate, or obscurely emarginate at the summit. Peduncles two-flowered. Sepals oblong, 
acute, lateral ones a little prolonged at the base ; petals broader, obovate, acute, serrulate. Lahellum 
unguiculated, ovate, concave, undivided, villous, much fimbriated at the margin. 
If the species of Dendrobium we have hitherto figured are such as to recom- 
mend themselves strongly to the cultivator's favour, every one will admit that the 
subject now represented is, of all the orange or yellow-flowered kinds, the most 
magnificent. And when it is considered that no drawing can do justice to the 
peculiar beauty of the fringed labellum of an orchidaceous flower, and at the same 
time borne in mind that the present species surpasses any of its allies in that parti- 
cular, the richness and general accuracy of our plate will still require considerable 
aid of the imagination to invest it with those charms which nature has so lavishly 
bestowed upon the living plant. 
With many other nearly related species, the pictorial delineations of some of 
which have so greatly embellished our work, the plant that furnished our drawing- 
was imported from India by His Grace the Duke of Devonshire in 1837. Mr. 
Gibson originally discovered it growing on trees at Pondooah, a station near the 
base of the Khoseea Hills, and it flowered at Chatsworth last June. It approaches 
pretty closely in some features of its character to both D . fimbriatum and D. cliry- 
santhum. To the former, its stems, foliage, and general habit assimilate, while the 
flowers are far superior, and these again differ from those of D. chrysanthum chiefly 
in the serratures of the petals and the deeply fringed labellum. 
So many and such frequent allusions have been made in this Magazine to the 
culture of Dendrobiums, that it would almost appear a work of supererogation to 
VOL. VI. NO. LXVIII. Z 
