Trichopilia suavis alba was exhibited by J. S. Bockett, Esq., of Stamford Hill, at one of the meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society, and was awarded a First Class Certificate of Merit.
The Cattleya house is the best position for the plant, but it should be placed at the coolest end. It will flourish either in a basket or pot, in a compost of fibrous peat, with good drainage, but it must be well elevated above the rim, so that the flowers may hang down according to their natural habit. Propagation is effected by division of the plant after blooming; two or three bulbs should be severed from the original plant, or more if a larger specimen is desired.
Aërides odoratum majus.—This fine old Orchid was shown by Mrs. Arbuthnot at the Chislehurst Exhibition, on the 16th of July, and in this case it was a most wonderful example of good cultivation. The plant was one mass of its beautiful racemes of flowers, about fifty in number, many of them measuring fifteen inches in length. The flowers are white, tipped with pink, and are produced in long graceful spikes which overhang the foliage and produce a most charming effect. The perfume given off by this variety is very delightful, and was in this case most refreshing to those who passed by, many of whom wondered where the pleasant odour came from, as it was shown among the stove and greenhouse plants. This plant was two and a half feet in diameter, and three feet in height. Great credit is due to Mr. Mitchell, the gardener, for his skill in cultivating so fine a specimen. We often wonder why this plant is not more popular at our exhibitions, especially as it is easy to grow, taking very few years to make a good specimen, and being purchasable in small sizes for a few shillings. When not in bloom, it is, moreover, an attractive plant.—B. S. W.
PL. 15. VANDA PARISHII.
VANDA PARISHII.
[[Plate 15].]
Native of Moulmein.
Epiphytal. Plant evergreen, dwarf. Stem a span high, stout-growing, densely leafy. Leaves distichous, broadly ligulate-obtuse, with an unequal bilobed apex, very stout and fleshy in texture. Scape stiff, erect, bearing a spike of several showy blossoms. Flowers large, distinct in character, prettily spotted; sepals and petals cuneate-oblong, acute, somewhat undulated, of a greenish-yellow colour, decorated with numerous round reddish-brown spots, white inside at the base; lip furnished with linear-ligulate auricles at the base, and produced into a short gibbous spur, white, with a pair of orange-coloured stripes, the larger anterior part violaceous, rhomboid, gibbous below the apex, with a keel along the median line, and a violet-coloured conical callus at the base. Column white, the caudicle ligulate, the glandule triangular.
Vanda Parishii, Reichenbach fil., in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1870, 890.
This glorious thing, as Professor Reichenbach calls it, was first discovered by the Rev. C. Parish in 1862, and then lost sight of, but was rediscovered in 1870, from which discovery, we presume, the first plants were obtained by Mr. S. Low, of the Clapton Nursery; since then we have received living plants of it on several occasions, and the plant now figured was from one of these importations. It is a small and distinct growing Vanda, and is well worthy of a place in every collection on account of its compact habit of growth, which resembles that of a Phalænopsis. The Vandas are for the most part large growers, but, as will be seen from the accompanying figure, Vanda Parishii is an exception to the general rule. Our plate was prepared from a plant which bloomed in the collection of the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, M.P., of Birmingham—a gentleman who is making a grand collection of Orchids, and is a great admirer of them. The plant above referred to was a well-grown specimen, bearing a good spike of flowers.