DENDROBIUM MACROPHYLLUM.
D. macrophyllum. Botanical Register 1839, mise. no. 46.
Although the Orchidaceous plants of the Philippines have not proved handsome in many cases,
yet it must be confessed that this yields in magnificence of appearance to no species that have yet
been discovered.
In the specimen now represented the flowers were nine inches in circumference, and they will
probably be much larger ; and a pair of them is produced from opposite every leaf, except the
lowermost, upon all the drooping branches of the stout and numerous stems. In this respect it
resembles the well-known Dendrobia macrostachyum, Pierardi, cucullatum, and pulchellum ; but it
is far handsomer than even the finest of them. Its flowers indeed are more like those of D. nobile,
but they are purple all over, the leaves are full four inches long by two in breadth, and the stems are
pendulous not erect. ■
The species was sent from Manilla by Cuming, and flowered in the possession of the Messrs.
Loddiges.
At the base of the lip there is a three-lobed callosity, which lies across the channel that leads
from the apex to the unguis. It is worthy of the especial consideration of Botanists that this callosity
is absent in D. coerulescens and nobile, two species to which D. macrophyllum approaches very
nearly in many respects ; for we learn from that fact that the absence or presence of such projections
is not of generic importance, as it has been supposed to be. It is also to be observed that the hairy
ridge which runs down the middle of the lip in many allied species is here altogether missing.