IPSEA. 



IPSEA. 



Liudl. Gen. et Sp. Orcli. p. 124 (1831). 

 Ipsea is made sectional under Pachystoma by Bentham_, witli the 

 remark that it would perhaps be better to restore it to generic rank. 

 We need therefore offer no apology for doing so^ especially as the species 

 described below is clearly distinguishable from the typical Pachystomas 

 by its leaf-bearing pseudo-bulbs and large showy flowers. Pachystoma 

 Ihomsonianum should^ according to the same authority^ be a second 

 species of Ipsea^* but there are structural differences observable in 

 the flower^ especially in the pollinia and the labellum, that render it 

 very distinct from the Ceylon plant; it is^ to our mind^ so far as at 

 present known, a monotypic form that should have separate generic 

 rank. 



Ipsea speciosa. 



Pseudo-bulbs or tuberous rhizomes, sub-globose like corms, from the 



conical tops of which are produced two but sometimes only one lanceolate 



leaf, 5 — 9 inches long, tapering below into a slender petiole. Scapes slender, 



erect, 12 — 18 inches high, with 2 — 3 joints, at each of which is a spath- 



aceous bract, 1 — 2 flowered. Flowers 2 — 3 inches in diameter, canary- 



yelloAV with some red lines on the disk of the lip ; sepals oblong, obtuse, 



the lateral two connate at the base of the column, forming a small obtuse 



spur ; petals obovate-oblong, smaller than the sepals ; lip three-lobed, the 



lateral lobes triangular, ascending, the intermediate lobe broadly obcordate, 



recurved with five wavy keels on the disc, of which the middle one is the 



longest. Column clavate. 



Ipsea speciosa, Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 124 (1831). Thwaites, PI. zeyl. 

 p. 301. £oL Mag. t. 5701. The Garden, XXII. (1882), t. 351. Gard. Chron. 

 XVIII. (1882), p. 500. Pachystoma speciosum, Rchb. in Bonpl. HI. (1855), p. 250. 



Discovered in the early part of the present century by McRae, on the 



mountains in the south of Ceylon, where it is " not uncommon amongst 



long grass on exposed slopes, at an elevation of 4,000 — 5,000 feet/' 



It was introduced to the Royal Gardens at Kew, in 1866, by Mr. 



Thwaites, at that time Director of the Botanic Garden at Peradenia. 



Cultural Note. — The cultural treatment of Ipsea speciosa is the same 



as that of the Pleiones (see postea), but with the average temperature 



somewhat higher. 



* Ei bene adjunctuiu videtur Pachystoma Thorn soniaiium. Gen. Plant. III. p. 511. See als 

 Jour. Linn. Soc. XVIII. p. 304. 



