59 
of the foliage — but have a constant upward trend. Flowers (front 
view) striking shining chocolate brown flecked with yellowish 
green and finely margined with olive green; centre dull but very 
white, base of under surface of centre has a waved stripe of 
crimson lake surmounted by a light blush; tongue olive green 
longitudinally striped with chocolate brown; back of flower and 
flower-stem very light olive brown with patches and stripes 
(on stem) of chocolate brown). TYPE in Queensland Herbarium, 
Brisbane; living plants in Brisbane Botanic Gardens and at 
Botany Department, University ot Queensland. 
This orchid was collected by Mr. Wassell on a pre- 
vious trip lo Cape York Peninsula. Though not in 
flower, it was obviously a Vanda, and as this genus had 
not been recorded from Queensland, il was thought that 
it might belong to the species collected by P. Mueller in 
“Arnhem Land."’ (Mueller, Fragm. 7 : 135 (1871) gave 
a detailed description of Iris plant and referred it to 
V. saatis Lindl. (which is now usually treated as a 
colour-variation of I’, tricolor Lindl.) but mentioned a 
few differences between his plant and the “Indian” 
(really Javanese) plant. Bentham, FI. Austral. 6 :297 
(1S7:I) referred it to V, hindsii Lindl. (originally de- 
scribed from Papua) with P. tricolor as a synonym; he 
saw only a leaf and a flower of Mueller's plant and his 
description was evidently drawn up from specimens of 
V. tricolor. 
V. tricolor is a common orchid in cultivation in 
Brisbane, and there are several horticultural varieties 
distinguished chiefly by colour. Since the plant from 
North Queensland resembled this species in vegetative 
characters, Mr. Wassell was asked to make a search for 
more plants in the flowering season (October-November) . 
Ib’ was fortunate in obtaining a small number this year 
(1950), and the flowers are quite distinct from those of 
any described species. Il is named in memory of Cyril 
Tenison White, M.Sc., late Government Botanist of 
Queensland. 
The outstanding characters of V. wliiteana are its 
medium-sized flowers with a ground-colour of rich 
chocolate brown fading to purplish brown and margined 
and somewhat flecked and striped with pale olive-green 
or pale yellow, (he dorsal sepal and petals with very 
broad laminae abruptly contracted into relatively short 
claws, the strongly asymmetrical petals, the indistinctly 
clawed lateral sepals, the labellum (excluding its spur) 
