Epiphytal. Stems stout, pendulous, deciduous, attaining three feet in length, knotty at the nodes. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, attenuate at the apex. Racemes two or three flowered, issuing from the nodes of the matured stems. Flowers large and conspicuous from their striking colours; sepals oblong-lanceolate, bluntish, white tipped with magenta-rose, the margins reflexed; petals oblong-ovate, obtuse, white more deeply tipped than the sepals; lip cucullate, the base folded over the column, the anterior portion ovate-obtuse, recurved at the tip, entire, the surface covered with crystalline processes, the colour golden yellow at the base with a pair of maroon-crimson spots, the margin and middle portion creamy white, the apex tipped like the petals with deep magenta; spur short. Column short, depressed, almost hidden in the base of the lip, the anther-case white.
Dendrobium Wardianum, R. Warner, Select Orchidaceous Plants, ser. i., t. 19; Jennings’ Orchids, t. 2; L’Illustration Horticole, ser. 3, t. 277; Gardeners’ Chronicle, N.S., viii, 241, fig. 50.
Var. GIGANTEUM.—Habit more vigorous and more erect than in the ordinary form; stems stouter and less nodose, four to five feet long; flowers larger, and of stouter substance, otherwise as in the type.
Dendrobium Wardianum giganteum, Williams & Moore, supra.
Dendrobium Wardianum Lowii, Smith, Moral Magazine, N.S., t. 212.
The flowers of the plant we now bring under the notice of our readers are of the most perfect form, of the richest colours, and also of very large size. It is altogether a stronger grower than the type of the species named in compliment to Dr. Ward, of Southampton, and of which a fine figure is published in [Plate 19] of the first series of Warner’s Select Orchidaceous Plants. By a comparison of the two illustrations, it will be seen that the typical plant has much thinner and more tapering stems, and that the flowers are of a smaller size than in the variety now treated upon, though the colour and marking are equally brilliant in both. The larger form, giganteum, also comes from a different country, the smaller kind having been introduced from Assam, while the larger one comes from Burmah, which difference may account for the difference in their growth. Our sketch was taken from a plant in the collection of D’Alroy Salamon, Esq., of Clapham Park, where it has bloomed two years in succession. There is in cultivation a variety of D. Wardianum with white flowers, which has been bloomed during the last two or three years from imported plants. It is quite interesting to find that in most of the principal genera white varieties are turning up to meet the growing taste for white forms of the different Orchids.
Dendrobium Wardianum giganteum is a deciduous plant, sometimes producing growths four or five feet long, with somewhat knotty joints all up the stems. The foliage is of a bright green colour, and begins to fall off after it has completed its growth. The sepals and petals are white heavily tipped with deep magenta-rose, while the lip is of a deep orange-yellow at the base, with two blackish crimson blotches, the tip of the lip being bright magenta-rose. It blooms during the winter and spring months according to the time of the completion of its growth. We have seen it in bloom in the month of October, so by having a number of plants started at different periods, it might be had in bloom for many months, some of the plants being retarded by keeping them dry in a warm house—for it is not safe to put them into a cold house, as this often injures the growth for the following year.
The plants are best grown in baskets or pans suspended from the roof, where they get all the light, but just keeping them from the burning sun. We find rough fibrous peat with sphagnum moss and good drainage to suit them. They must be kept moist at the roots during the growing season, but when their growth is completed only just sufficient to keep the stems plump must be allowed them until they begin to show their flower buds: then give a little moisture at the roots, which will induce them to bloom finer, and to start into growth after their flowers are over. Sometimes they will start growing during the blooming season, and if so this should not be checked.
We find the East India house the most suitable one for them, or they will grow in any house where the heat is kept up during the growing season. When at rest less warmth will suffice. They must be kept free from insects. Sometimes the red spider and thrips will attack the leaves, but these may be kept under by syringing or using tobacco-smoke—the latter sparingly, as too much will be very injurious to the young growths.
Cattleya Trianæ formosa ([Plate 108]).—In the remarks on this Cattleya, instead of “the lip rich rose-magenta being beautifully frilled and edged with a lighter tint of the same colour. The flowers, which are two and a quarter inches in diameter, have the throat orange veined with a deeper orange, and are produced,” &c., read “the lip rich rose-magenta being beautifully frilled and edged with a lighter tint of the same colour, two and a quarter inches in diameter, the throat orange veined with deeper orange. The flowers are produced,” &c., &c.
PL. 114. TRICHOSMA SUAVIS.