122 ANGR^CUM. 



SYNorsis OF Species and Varieties. 

 Angrsecum arcuatum. 



Stems 2 — 5 inches high, about as tliick as an ordinary writing pencil, 



leafy from the base. Leaves narrowly oblong, 3 — 4 inches long, very 



leathery, emarginate, or unequally bi-lobecl at the apex. Kacemes as long 



as the leaves, few flowered. Flowers white on short green triquetral 



pedicels sheathed at the base by a triangular brown bract; sepals and 



petals linear-lanceolate, grooved on the face, very acuminate, reflexed, 



the sepals broader than the petals; lip similar to the petals but shorter 



and more fleshy ; spur large for the size of the floAver, greenish, 



recurved towards the tip. Column very short. 



Angra'cum arcuatum, Lindl. in Comp. Bot. Mag. II. p. 204 (1836). Id. in Paxt. 

 Fl. Gard. II. p. 120 (1852). Ilarv. Thes. Cap. II. p. 5, t. 107 (1863). Bolus in 

 Jouin. Linn. Soc XIX. p. 338 (name onty). Listrostachys arcuata, Rchb. in Walix 

 Ann. VI. 11. 907. 



A native of the Albany district in tlie extreme south-east of Cape 



Colony, growing on low trees and limestone rocks in the neighbourliood 



of Graham's Town, where it was first discovered by the botanical 



traveller, Bnrchell, in the early part of the present century. It was 



introduced by ns in 1851 ; it flowers in the spring months. 



A. articulatum. 



Stem thickish, 3 — 5 inches high in the cultivated plants. Leaves 



oval or obovate-oblong, 3 — 5 inches long and 1 — 1| inch broad, emarginate 



or obliquely two-lobed at the apex, very leathery. Peduncles stoutish, 



pale green, jointed at intervals of about half-an-inch, 9 — 1.5 inches long, 



pendulous, racemose from near the base. Flowers pure white, about 1| 



inch in diameter, on short, pale orange-red pedicels ; the dorsal sepal 



and petals elliptic-oblong, acute, the lateral sepals similar but narrower ; 



lip broadly oval-oblong, acute, larger than the other segments ; spur 



3 — 4 inches long, 



Angrsecum articulatum, Eclib. in Gard. Chron. 1872, p. 73. Sanier^s lieichenbachia, 

 II. t. 55. A. descendens, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. XVII. (1882), p. 558, 



Discovered by the Rev. W. Ellis during his second missionary 



visit to Madagascar. He succeeded in bringing home only three 



plants alive, which he cultivated at Rose Hill, Hoddesden, Herts, 



where he resided after his return to England, but they were 



subsequently acquired by the late Mr, John Day, Materials 



for description were supplied to the late Professor Reichenbach 



from Hoddesden towards the end of the year 1871, which 



is the earliest evidence extant of its flowering in this country. 



It continued to be very rare in the orchid collections of 



Europe till recent importations caused it to become more generally 



