45 



The plant was first described by Blume who had found it on 

 tiunong Salak in Java. He afterwards published a coloured plate 

 in his Floi-a Jarae, Orchidaceae, t. 49 (1858), but before this figure 

 appeared, the orchid was already in English glass-houses, and 

 Lindley in the Boianical Register, 1846, t. 47, as well as Sir William 

 Hooker in the Botanical Magazine, 1850, t. 4493, had issued plates. 

 The general colouring of the Tanipin plant is nearly as in Lindley's 

 and Blume's figures, i.e. a dull claret merging to yellowish white, 

 with considerable mottling and streaking, all the colours dull except 

 on the lip which is brightly coloured from claret at the edge of 

 the side-lobes to a clear chrome yellow on the mid-lobe which ends 

 m a dee]) claret tip. This lip is just like a saddle u])side down, but 

 with low spines as the figure shows where a saddle should be at its 

 smoothest; Blume's name for the genus refers to the saddle-like 

 appearance and to these low spines. 



The flower is 5.5 cm. from the tip of the dorsal sepal to the 

 bottom of the bucket, and 2.5 cm. across the mouth from tip to 

 tip of the slightly recurved lateral petals ; the opening into the 

 bucket, disregarding the degree to which the lip blocks it, is 1.7 



Flower of Acantliephippium javankum in section ; h— the hinge of the lip. 



cm. across. The lip is finely hinged (h. in the figure) obviously 

 with the object of upsetting the balance of a visiting insect and 

 throwing it against the sexual organs. By the slight projection of 

 the lip from the mouth of the flower and b}' its conspicuous colour- 

 ing it is the part offered to an insect for alighting. The drawing 

 shows the saddle fallen forward as far as possible. The side-lobes 

 of the lip which make the flaps of the saddle curve a little and 

 would keep a visiting insect in the middle line and therefore just 

 under the colunm with its sexual organs. 



The interior of the bucket is more spotted than the exterior 

 and deeper in colour. Xo free honey has been found, and no scent 

 detected. 



The flowering season is May, June and July. Up to four 

 flowers have been seen open on the same raceme. 



Blume's original locality, Gunong Salak, has been named. 

 Lindley studied the plant in the nurseries of Messrs. Loddiges, and 

 from his account the reader is led to suppose that Loddiges' plant 



