ORCHIDS OP MADAGASCAR. 479 



A. gladiifolium. The dorsal sepal is erect ; the others, with the 

 petal, are thrown forwards as in A. recurvum. The petals are 

 narrowed at the base, then dilated, and acute at the apex. The 

 lateral sepals are obliquely lanceolate. The spur is an inch long, 

 and hangs straight down, a little longer than the ovary. The 

 rostellar lobes are foliaceous and stiff, as in A. recurvum, but 

 instead of sloping upwards so as to form an arch as in that plaut, 

 they are quite vertical and the edges do not meet. The pollinia 

 are grooved on the back; the glands like those of A. recurvum. 



Angrjecum maxillarioides, n. sp. ; caule brevi ; foliis ligu- 

 latis obtusis insequaliter bilobis 9-uncialibus vel ultra; flore 

 singulo magno albo in pedunculo semipedali ex axilla folii in- 

 ferioris oriente ; sepalis carnosis lanceolatis acutis ; petalis simili- 

 bus angustioribus, deorso carinatis ; labello late lanceolato acuto 

 carnoso, sepalis suba?quali ; calcare filiformi pendulo, basi abrupte 

 dilatato biunciali ; columna brevi crassa ; lobis rostelli cornutis 

 erectis ; ovario longo, 6-costato. 



Ankafana in arboribus, Deans Cowan ! in Herb. Brit. Mus. ; 

 Central Madagascar, G. W. Parker] in Herb. Kew. 



This plant has much the habit of Angrcecum triquetrum. 

 Thouars, but is much larger in all its parts. The leaves are 

 strap-shaped and stiff, 9 inches in length and 1 across in Deans 

 Cowan's specimen ; but he says, in a note to a drawing of it : — 

 " Of this there seems to be another variety, with leaves about 

 twice as large as this one." From the axil of one of the lower 

 ones rises a peduncle bearing a solitary large white waxy flower, 

 recalling very much the habit of one of the large Maxillarias. 

 The base of the peduncle is covered with a few short sheathing- 

 leaves. The sepals are lanceolate and acute, 7-veined, lg inch 

 long by 5 lines across at the base; the petals are narrower, 

 6-veined, with a median ridge on the dorsal surface. The lip is 

 in the normal position raised above the lower sepals and petals ; 

 it is broadly lanceolate-acute. The sides at the base are erect, 

 leaving a narrow channel down the middle, and at a point about one 

 third of its length from the base the edges are so closely approxi- 

 mated as almost to meet, after which they diverge again. There 

 is a low ridge running in the median line for a short way from 

 the base of the lip. The spur is cylindrical and pendent, 2 inches 

 long ; where it joins the lip it is somewhat abruptly dilated 

 into a small bulb. The column is short and thick, the lobes of 



