CHAP. VII. SINGULAR LOCALITIES OF ANGR^CUMS. 177 



this island and those with which I had been familiar in the 

 South Seas, consisted in the Madagascar plants exhibiting a 

 more robust habit of growth, and rather larger, as well as more 

 darkly-tinted flowers. In all other respects the plants appeared 

 identical. 



Orchids were abundant, and often occupied positions in 

 which the growers of these plants in England would little 

 expect to find them, but in which they gave an indescribable 

 singularity and charm to the landscape. The limodorums 

 were numerous in parts of the road, and formed quite a ball 

 of interlaced roots at the base of the bulbs. A small species, 

 resembling in habit and growth the Camurotus purpurea, 

 but quite unknoAvn to me, and bearing a vast profusion of 

 white and sulphur-tinted flowers, often enlivened the sides 

 of the road along which we passed. But the angraecums both 

 A. siiperbuin and A. sesquipedale, were the most abundant 

 and beautiful. I noticed that they grew most plentifully on 

 trees of thinnest foliage, and that the A. sesquipedale was 

 seldom, if ever, seen on the ground, but grew high up 

 amongst the branches, often throwing out long straggling- 

 stems terminating in a few small, and often apparently 

 shrivelled, leaves. The roots also partook of the same habit. 

 They were seldom branched or spreading, but long, tough, 

 and single, sometimes running down the branch or trunk of 

 a tree, between the fissures in the rough bark, to the length 

 of twelve or fifteen feet ; and so tough and tenacious that it 

 required considerable force to detach or break them. Many 

 of them were in flower; and, notwithstanding the small, 

 shrivelled appearance of the leaves, the flowers were large, 

 and the yellow colour strongly marked. On more than one 

 occasion I saw a splendid Angrcecum sesquipedale growing 

 on the trunk of a decaying or fallen tree, as shown in the 

 accompanying engraving, and sending its tough roots down 

 the trunk to the moi.st parts of the vegetation on the ground. 



