476 MB. H. N. RIDLEY ON THE 



between Tamatave and Antananarivo, Meller no. 1017 ! ; Central 

 Madagascar, Baron ! in Herb. Keio. It is also reported from 

 Zanzibar, but I have not seen specimens. 



This plant was first flowered by the Eev. W. Ellis, at Hoddes- 

 don, in the year 1857 ; specimens from whom, with a drawing of 

 the plant made by Mrs. Ellis, are in the Lindleyan Herbarium. 



The whole plant is not more than two feet high, being smaller 

 than A. eburneum, simple or with one or two branches. The 

 leaves are numerous, broad, oblong, thick and fleshy, dark green, 

 and keeled at the base, very unequally lobed, and more imbricate 

 than those of eburneum. Several stout peduncles are produced 

 from the axils, each bearing from 2 to 4 of the large white or 

 greenish-white waxy flowers. The sepals and petals are lanceo- 

 late acuminate, almost triangular, the former spreading, the 

 latter reflexed. The lip is similar in size and shape, 3 inches in 

 length. The spur, in spite of the specific name, appears never 

 to attain a greater length than one foot. The bract at the base 

 of the ovary is short and blunt, fitting closely to the pedicel, but 

 its edges do not quite meet. The column is white, very short and 

 broad, the clinandrum small, the rostellar lobes large and foli- 

 aceous, horizontal, and stiff, the right-hand one overlapping the 

 other ; they are blunt and raised in the middle, white edged with 

 yellow ; beneath them is a deep chamber, at the back of which 

 is the stigma. The pollinia are bluntly wedge-shaped, and the 

 caudicles are shorter than the narrow flat viscid disks. The 

 ribs of the ovary are produced into somewhat sinuous and 

 appressed wings. 



Akgb^clm gladiifolttjm, Thouars, Orch. Ihs Afriq. t. 53; 

 Bindley, Gen. and Spec. Orch. Bl. p. 246 ; Bot. Beg. 1840, t. 68; 

 Bich. Orch. Maur. p. 69.— Orchis mauritiana, Lamarck, Encycl. 

 vi. p. COL— Aeranthusgladiifolius, Beichenbachfil. in Walp. Ann. 

 vi. p. 900; 8. Moore in Flor. Maur. 8f Seych. p. 350. 



Madagascar, Thouars; Imerina! Tanala! Beans Cowan in 

 Serb. Brit. Mus. Mauritius, Capt. CarmichaeV. Sieber M- 

 Maur. ii. no. 171! in Herb. Brit. Mus.; Boutonl At/res I Serb. 

 Keio. Bourbon, Boivin ! Balfour ! Herb. Keiv. Ins. MascareneS, 

 specimens without specific locality, collected by Thouars and Sir 

 J. Macgregor, are in Herb. Brit. Mus. 



This plant is easily recognized by its flattened, slightly flexuous 

 stem, covered with wrinkled shortly-winged leaf-sheaths. It is 



