78 ABPOPHYLLUM. 



monophyllous. Leaves ligulate, 12 — 15 inches long, coriaceous, rigid, 

 bronzy purple when first doveloped, changing to green with age. 

 Peduncle stoutish, issuing from a compressed purplish sheath, pale 

 green dotted with blackish purple and terminating in a dense spike, 

 frequently upwards of a foot long. Flowers very numerous, small, 

 almost sessile, rosy purple, the lip deeper in colour than the other 

 segments ; sepals and petals oblong, reflexed at the apex, the petals 

 narrower than the sepals ; lip broadly obovate. Column very short ; 

 poUinia eight in two series of four. 



Arpophyllum giganteum, Liiidl. in Ann. Nat. Hist. IV. p. 384 (1840), Warner's 

 Sel. Orch. I. t. 39 (1862-65). 



Discovered by Hartweg in 1339, and introduced by him to the 

 garden of the Horticultural Society of London, at Chiswick. It is 

 a native of Mexico and Guatemala, occurring on the mountains and 

 hills in isolated patches that are frequently remote from each other. 

 Eoezl met with it in the first named country on the Sante 

 Comapau in immense masses on the trunks and branches of trees 

 at the summit of the mountain. In this situation the plants are 

 exposed from October to March to the violent storms which 

 occasionally blow from the north with so great impetuosity, that 

 under their influence a man can with difficulty keep on his feet, 

 but which the Arpophyllum resists without injury. 



A. spicatum. 



Rhizome as thick as an ordinary writing-pencil. Stems erect, 3 — 6 

 mches long, as thick as the rhizome, monophyllous. Leaves linear, 

 9— 12 inches long, complicate, falcate, very leathery. Peduncles with 

 a basal sheath, 6 — 9 inches long including the dense terminal spike. 

 Flowers one-third of an inch in diameter ; sepals and petals pale rose- 

 purple, the former ovate-oblong, the latter similar but narrower and 

 with the margin erose ; lip longer than the petals, concave, gibbous 

 at the base, bright purple. 



Arpophyllum spicatum, Llav. et Lex. Nov. Veg. descript. II. p. 19 (1825). Lindl. 



Gen. et. Sp. Orcb. p. 151. Id. in Bot. Reg. XXV. misc. No. 16. JBot. Mag. t. 6022. 



The typical species upon which the genus was founded by the 

 Mexican botanists La Llave and Lexarza, in the early part of the 

 present century. It has been reported from various parts of Mexico, 

 and, like the preceding, was introduced into British gardens by 

 Hartweg. 



