[Reprinted from ‘The Queensland Naturalist, '* Vol. IX. 
No. 3, August, pp. 31-52. 
NOTES ON CERTAIN SPECIES OF DENDROBIUM. 
(By the Rev. H. M. R. RUPP , Woy Woy , N.S.W.) 
In April of the present year, Mr. K. Macpherson, of 
Proserpine, sent me several plants under the name 
Dendrobium Mortii F.v.M. The flowers were just wither- 
ing, but within six weeks a second lot appeared. This is 
characteristic of D. Mortii ; but as neither flowers nor 
leaves were completely identical with the species as known 
to me, I decided to investigate. I found that the Proser- 
pine orchid agreed precisely with Bailey’s description of 
Bentham ’s D. Bowmanii. Bentham himself (FLA. vi., 
286) described the flowers as “apparently white/’ but 
colour-descriptions of dried specimens cannot be depended 
upon. 
Now Bentham (loo. cit.) treated D. Mortii and D. 
Beckleri F.v.M. as conspecific, and suppressed the latter. 
With all due respect to the great botanist, I venture to 
say that no one who has seen and handled these plants in 
the living state could possibly endorse this treatment of 
them. It appears to me that Bentham ’s description of 
what he calls D. Mortii is a description of the plant of 
D. Beckleri and the flower of D. Mortii . As T write, I have 
before me Mueller's specimens, kindly sent by the Mel- 
bourne National Herbarium authorities. They bear out 
my contention that Bentham confused the material, and 
mistakenly suppresed I). Beckleri. It would be difficult to 
do otherwise with these specimens unless one was acquaint- 
ed with the plants in life. Having disposed of D. Beckleri 
and described its flowers under the impression that they 
were those of D. Mortii , Bentham seems to have decided 
that certain speimens from the Bersaker Range, near 
Rockhampton, labelled by Mueller D. Mortii , were not that 
species. Accordingly he named them D. Bowmanii. . I do 
not think there can b^ any doubt that Mueller was right. 
His specimens appear to me identical with the Proserpine 
plant of 1934 ; and the differences between this and the 
typical D. Mortii are certainly not of specific value. The 
leaves are slightly more robust and silicate; the spur of 
the flower is a trifle longer, and the labellum is more 
obtuse. Mueller also had this form from Port Denison., 
which adjoins Mr. Macpherson ’s locality. 
After reaching the above conclusions, I made the 
belated discovery that ‘ R. D. Fitzgerald expressed the 
same view long ago in Austr. Orch., vol. i. (D. Beckleri ), 
