120 ORCHID- 3R0 wee's MANUAL. 



and bear from one to four of these fragi-ant gigantic flowers, 

 wliich are produced in November, December, and January, 

 and last about three weeks in beauty. There are two varieties 

 of this species, one having larger flowers than the other and 

 blooming later in the season. 



YiG.— Bot. Mag., t. 5113; Gard. Chron., 1857,253 (woodcut): Id. 1873, 

 255 (woodcut) ; 'lllust. HoH., xiii , t. 475; Flore des Serves, tt. 1413—14; 

 Warner, Sel. Orck. PL, i., t. 31 ; Jennings, Orchids, t. 3. 



Stn. — Aeranthus sesquipedalis. 



A. SUperblim. — See Angr.ecum eburneuji. 

 A. virens. — See Angr^cum eburneum yirens. 



AnCECTOCHILUS, Blume. 

 {Tribe Neottiese, subtribe Spiranthese.) 



These charming little tropical Orchids are peculiar in habit, 

 having neither erect stems, nor pseudobulbs, nor acaulescent 

 crowns, but having instead small fleshy stems or rhizomes, 

 which creep on the mossy surface of the soil, producing at 

 intervals ovate or ovate-lanceolate leaves, and rooting from 

 the joints where the leaves are produced. Their beauty con- 

 sists in the metallic reticulations which cover their leaf- 

 surface, and not in their flowers, which are small and grow 

 in erect spikes from a few inches to a foot in height ; they 

 have their dorsal sepal connivent with the petals into a kind 

 of helmet, and the lip extended behind into a spur and 

 having a fimbriated claw and a two-lobed limb. The name is 

 sometimes written AncEctochilus, but Blume writes it as we 

 have adopted above ; he has in some of his works called the 

 genus Anecochilus, and in others Anectochilus. The species, 

 which Bentham and Hooker set down as about eight in 

 number, are found in India and the Malayan Ai'chipelago. 

 In the following pages we have noted the various forms of 

 Ancectochili we have met with in cultivation. 



Culture. — The genus Ancectochilus is one of the most 

 remarkable of the class of variegated Orchids, and to its culti- 



