ORCIIIDE.E. 177 



are spar>o, lone; and tongh like conls, and take a firm hold of tlic tree on wliicli it 

 grows. Found sparingly all over the provinces. 



GuAMMATOl'nYLLUM, Bl. 



As but one species of tliis genus is known to me, and I have never lunl the 

 good fortune to see it in Hower, I -will describe its appearance as far as 1 know it, 

 borrowing the rest from another source. 



It is a very large ("gigantic," Hooker calls it) epiphytal, caulescent Orchid. 

 The stems (it is straining a term to call them pseudo-bulbs) are numerous, and take 

 their rise from a huge dense tangled mass of short, branched, fine wiry roots, 3, 4, 

 or 5 feet in circumference according to the size of the plant, they (the stems) are 

 4 or 5 feet long, 2 or 2^ inches in diameter, ratlier flattened, clothed for nearly their 

 ■whole length with long, membranous, strap-shape<l distichous leaves, which are 

 close-set and sheathing at their base, llougldy speaking, they may be compared to 

 large-sized sugar canes. This is all I can say of the plant from personal knowledge. 

 The rest of the description is from the Bot. Mag., 'So. 5157, under the head of 

 G. speciosiim, -which species I feel nearly sure that it must be. After stating that 

 the plant sometimes attains the height of 8 or 10 feet, and the leaves a hngth 

 of 2, the description proceeds as follows: "Scape nearly the size of one's finger, 

 irom 4 to 6 feet long, radical, erect, terete, quite smooth, many-flowered. Flowers 

 distant, expanding from the base upwards, each with a large, broad, concave bract, 

 an inch long. Flower-bud 2^ inches long. Expanded flower nearly 6 inches across. 

 Sepals and petals much s]U-eailing and slightly reflexed, broad oblong or subovato, 

 yellow, richly spotteil and blotched with deep red purple. Lip small for the size 

 of the flower, 3-lobed, lA- inch long; the lobes obtuse, the side lobes convolute over 

 the column; the disk furrowed with three plates more elevated in the centre, 

 marked with red streaks, and where the red streaks are the lines are ciliated ; middle 

 lobe entire. Column curved a little downwards, semiterete (half-rounded), and 

 partially spotted with I'cd." 



This "Queen of Orchidaceous Plants," to which for grandeur nothing in East 

 or "West can compare (unless my plant should prove a new and distinct species), is 

 a native of the Mergui Archipelago, wliore it grows on Betel-nut trees. For years 

 I had gone to and fro between Maulnuiin and llergui without seeing or hearing 

 anything of it. As soon as discovered, I procured two or three plants and brought 

 them to Maulmain. The climate, however, proved unfavourable to them, and they 

 yearly became smaller, and never gave the slightest indication of flowering. The 

 plant seems to require a continually moist atmosphere throughout the year, which 

 it can obtain in and around the Straits (where it was first discovered), and may in 

 some fair measure have also in the islands of the Mergui Archipelago, which, 

 probably, is its northeim limit. It is to be hoped some resident at llergui may yet 

 have the flowers brought in to him, and the plant be verified. 



REXAXTiiEnA, Lour. 



A genus nearly allied to Yanda, but distinguished from it by having the lip jointed 

 ■with the column "instead of being continuous with it; and saccate in the middle 

 instead of at the base. The flowers are widely expanded ; sepals and petals generally 

 narrow and linear, nearly equal, or, if there be a difference, the two lower or lateral 

 sepals are the larger. Column short, erect. Pollinia of the usual Yandeous character. 



R. COCCIXEA. 



stem many feet long, climbing up trees to a considerable height, simple or 

 branched, sending out long wiry roots here and there, leafy at the termination of the 

 branches. Leaves two ranked,"thick and fleshy, varying in length and breadth, 6 or 

 8 inches X 1 or 2. Flowers red, very handsome, 2.V or 3 inches across, in a large 

 lateral panicle. Lip small, striped with y(dlow, bagged in the middle, 3-lobcd ; side 

 lobes rounded, erect; midiUe lobe ovate, jiointed. Discovered many ycai's ago in 

 Cochin-China. Found by me only on the iloscos Islands. 



VOL. 11. 12 



