Tas. 7996, 
VANILLA Hometort. 
Madagascar. 
Orcuipacka. Tribe NEOTTIES. 
VaniLia, Swartz; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 590. Pfitzer in 
Engl. & Prantl. Pflanzenfam. vol. ii. 6, p. 108. 
Vanilla (§ Aphylle) Humblotii, Reichd. f. in Gard. Chron. 1885, vol. i. p. 726 ; 
Rolfe in Journ. Linn. Soe. vol. xxxii. p 476; Cogn. et Gooss. Dict. Ic. des 
— Vanilla, t. 1; inter species aphyllas labelli disco valde villoso 
istincta. 
Caules alte scandentes, teretes, crasso-carnosi, verrucosi, glaucescentes, 
maculati; internodia 34-4 poll. longa, 5-6 lin. lata. Squamez ovate, 
acute, parve. Racemi laterales, 6 poll. longi, circa 6-Aori, rhachi cauli 
similis. Bractee ovato-oblonge, obtuse v. subacute, 6-10 lin. longer, 
carneo-brunnex. Flores aperti, speciosi, lutei, labelli discus brunneo- 
maculatus, fauces pilis sanguineis instructs. Pedicelli 2-23 poll. longi. 
Sepala elliptico-oblonga, subobtusa, 23-23 poll. longa, 10-11 lin. lata, 
lateralia subfaleata. Petala elliptica, subobtusa, 23-22 poll. longa, 13 
poll. lata. Zabellum integrum, apiculatum, undulatum, 23-2} poll. 
_ longum, marginibus prope basin convolutis et column adnatis; tubus 
latus, 6-7 lin. longus; discus pilosus, pilis inferioribus retrorsis, 
superioribus in lineas divergentes extensis. Columna clavata, arcuata, 
10 lin. longa; rostellum quadratum, 1 lin. longum.—V. Phaleznopsis, 
Gard. World, 1904, p. 481, non Reichb. f. 
The only Vanilla hitherto depicted in this Magazine is 
the Vanilla of commerce, V. planifolia, Andr. (t. 7167). 
This species is one of the very few Orchids which are 
of economic importance. The subject of tle present plate | 
is a very different species, belonging to the section 
Aphylle, a remarkable group of about a dozen species, 
found in each of the three great tropical areas. The 
African species of this group are four in number, namely : 
V. Roscheri, Reichb. f., from Zanzibar ; V. madagascariensis, 
Rolfe, from Madagascar; V. Phalenopsis, Reichb. f., from 
Seychelles, and the present one, V. Humblotii, Reichb. f. 
The last was described by Reichenbach, in 1885, from 
dried specimens collected in the Great Comoro Islands by 
Mr. Lecn Humblot. Nothing further was known about it 
until last June, when a plant supposed to be V. Phalwnop- — 
sis, Reichb. f., flowered in the collection of Sir Trevor | 
Lawrence, Bart., at Burford, Dorking, and the inflorescence 
JANUARY Ist, 1905. 
