JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 4, 1881. ] 
109 
B. S. Williams’s intimation that he had his handsome specimen in 
flower, and in consequence the Orchid house containing it at 
Holloway has been entered by many interested visitors during 
the past week, and doubtless many more will yet have an oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing it, as the plant appears likely to continue in 
flower for several weeks. All that have the opportunity will 
certainly not regret the time spent, for the Orchid is in fine con¬ 
dition, and perhaps few better displays of flowers have been pro¬ 
duced—in England at all events. Of course we can never hope 
to rival such specimens as have been found attached to the trunks 
of trees in its native home—Borneo. Reliable travellers have 
stated this Renanthera is so vigorous that sometimes examples 
have been observed with two hundred branches, each bearing two 
to four spikes of flowers 10 or 12 feet long, thus bearing collec¬ 
tively several thousands of flowers. British Orchid growers can 
afford to be content with less extraordinary results than these ; 
but even in our dull climate, and under the artificial conditions 
imposed by cultivation in glass houses, the plant is found to be 
when healthy remarkably strong-growing, and, as an experienced 
orchidologist has remarked, it appears to disdain our attempts to 
limit it to the moderate extent of ordinary Orchid houses in this 
country. Even when not flowering it has a noble appearance, 
and seems to occupy a regal position among the Vandas, to which 
it is closely related both structurally and in general superficial 
characters. 
The genus Renanthera is not a large one, and it is chiefly sepa¬ 
rated from Vanda by some slight differences in the mode the lip 
is attached to the column ; in other respects, especially in the 
growth and leaves, there is a striking similarity between the best- 
known forms of each genus—indeed, the one now specially re¬ 
ferred to here, R. Lowii, was originally described by Lindley as a 
Vanda, and it was not until better materials had been submitted 
to Reichenbach that it was allocated to its present position in the 
Orchid family. Mr. Hugh Low, when holding the post of Colo¬ 
nial Treasurer at Labuan about 1846-7, was fortunate enough to 
discover specimens of the plant, some of which he succeeded in 
forwarding to England then or a short time subsequently. Some 
years, however, elapsed before flowers were produced, and I be¬ 
lieve that the honour of having been the first to flower the plant 
in England rests with Mr. Pilcher, who had charge of the cele¬ 
brated Ruckerian collection of Orchids at Wandsworth. It seems 
strange that twelve years should have elapsed from the time the 
