EPIDENDRUM WALLISII.
[[Plate 74].]
Native of New Grenada.
Epiphytal. Stems erect, three to four feet high, reed-like, as thick as a raven’s quill, leafy throughout, the sheaths, which nearly cover the spaces between the leaves, rugose and spotted with brownish-purple. Leaves distichous, oblong-lanceolate, acute, about five inches long, and an inch or rather more in breadth. Inflorescence racemose, the racemes many-flowered, with sheathing scales at the base, and furnished above with triangular-ovate bracts much shorter than the pedicels; the racemes are both terminal and lateral on the stems, the lateral ones being placed opposite the leaves. Flowers numerous and showy, fully an inch and a half across, picturesquely coloured, fragrant, with a pleasant smell of honey and musk; sepals and petals ligulate-oblong, acute, deep golden yellow, marked with rather small distant deep carmine-crimson spots; lip cuneately-flabellate, an inch broad, quadrifid, with a broad sinus in front, and smaller lateral ones, white, radiately pencilled with feathery lines of magenta-purple, which are minutely tuberculated, the disk yellow, bearing three or five short crests. Column adnate, the anther-bed with a quadrifid limb.
Epidendrum Wallisii, Reichenbach fil., in Gardeners’ Chronicle, N.S., iv., 66; ix., 462.
We have here one of the comparatively few ornamental species of Epidendrum, but this, as has been truly remarked, is a real beauty—interesting, moreover, as representing a peculiar type of the genus, that has no pseudobulbs, but tall distichously-leafy stems, that bear both lateral and terminal racemes of flowers at the same time and on the same stems. E. Wallisii appears to vary somewhat in its flowers; one of those bloomed by the Messrs. Veitch and Sons being recorded as producing flowers with unspotted yellow sepals and petals, and a lip with three orange-coloured keels, and dark purple veins with small spots and lines on a white ground.
This wonderful plant, which was first described in 1875 by Professor Reichenbach, is peculiar in having its racemes of flowers both terminal and lateral, on which account it will at once be seen it is of a very floriferous habit. Our plate was prepared from a plant in the grand collection belonging to Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P., Burford Lodge, Dorking, where, under the care of Mr. Spyers, it seems to have grown remarkably well. We were, indeed, much surprised to find that it has attained to such large dimensions. The first plants that flowered in this country grew not more than from fifteen to eighteen inches high; and, according to Mr. Wallis’s dried specimens, the plant in its native habitat is even dwarfer. Now we have the plant, in the case of Sir Trevor Lawrence’s specimen, attaining several feet in height, and producing an immense quantity of flowers, thus showing how Orchids may be improved by good cultivation. The flowers of this plant are generally produced in October and November, and they last in perfection for a considerable time.
Epidendrum Wallisii should be grown in the Cattleya house, and does best in a pot. We have found a mixture of peat and sphagnum to be the most fitting compost in which to pot it. The plant should be elevated well above the rim of the pot, and have a good supply of drainage. It delights in a liberal supply of water during the growing season; and when at rest should receive a less quantity, only just enough to keep the bulbs from shrivelling.
Vandas Flowering in a Small State.—It is generally thought that these Orchids only flower when they have attained considerable size, but such is not the case. At the present time may be seen in the Victoria Nurseries plants of Vanda tricolor and its varieties, as also of V. suavis, in bloom, though only from fifteen to twenty-four inches high, having in some instances two spikes each. These are not cut-down plants, but young offshoots that have been taken from the bases of the old stools, and grown singly in pots. The secret of this is, that the growth is well matured, in consequence of too high a temperature not being maintained during the growing season, but plenty of light and air given to the plants. These are conditions which Vandas delight in, as is proved by the results.—B. S. W.
PL. 75. LÆLIA ANCEPS.