MISSOURI. BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 101 
The flowering orchids are especially worthy of notice this 
month. The most interesting one, “The Star of Bethlehem” 
(Angraecum sesquipedale) has five gigantic flowers meas- 
uring thirteen inches in length and from tip to tip of the 
lateral petals, seven inches. (See plate 16.) . 
To the Rev. W. Ellis, the missionary and historian of 
Madagascar, is due the credit of introducing, in 1885, this 
remarkable orchid. In its native home it inhabits the low- 
est and hottest districts, growing on the dryest parts of the 
trunks and branches of thinly-leaved trees. The leaves of 
the plants are neither numerous nor large and present a 
half-starved, straggling appearance. The roots are few in 
number, frequently extending down the tree on which it 
grows, twelve to eighteen feet, and so tough and adhering so 
tenaceously to the bark that a considerable force is required 
to break or detach them. ~~ 
Flowers of this 5 eines were examined by Charles Darwin, 
and he drew the following interesting inference from his 
observations: “If the Angraecum in its native forest 
secretes more nectar than the vigorous plant in our hot- 
houses, so that the nectary becomes filled, small moths might 
obtain their share, but they would not benefit the plant. 
The pollinia would not be drawn till some huge moth with 
a wonderful proboscis tried to draw the last drop. If such 
great moths were to become extinct in Madagascar, assuredly 
the Angraecum would become extinct also. On the other 
hand, as the nectar, at least in the lower part of the nectary 
(spur), is stored safe from depredation by other insects, the 
extinction of the Angraecum would seohally be a serious loss 
to those moths.” Although it is popularly supposed that a 
moth has been discovered in Madagascar with a proboscis 
sufficiently long to reach to the bottom of the remarkabl 
long nectary (spur) and at the same time to pollenate this 
orchid, no authentic account of its existence can be found. 
A cinnamon-odored orchid (Lycaste aromatica) will be 
found on the side stage amidst a collection of blooming 
epidendrums. Suspended above the center stage is a large 
piant of Dendrobium Hookerianum with two long, sweeping 
spikes bearing tan-colored flowers with two splotches of cin- 
namon-red on the inside of the labellum. On the center 
stage are a large number of flowering orchids, of which the 
single plant of Coelogyne Swaniana, with its 4 Bie of 
flowers made up of white petals and brown-strea label- 
lum, at once attracts attention. Two plants of Brassavola 
