136 ANQRiECUM. 



of plants of an Angraecum collected in the Comoro islands by 

 M. Leon Huniblot whicli received the name of Angrcecum Sanderiannm 

 from the late Professor Reichenbach. Plants of both importations 

 subsequently flowered in our houses contemporaneously and thence 

 afforded an opportunity for comparison, with this result, that structurally 

 the flowers of the Madagascar and Comoro plants are identical, but 

 the leaves of the latter are broader, and the racemes longer than 

 those of the former. We have therefore reduced the second name 

 to a synonym of the first, the slight difierences observable in the 

 vegetative organs being scarcely of even varietal value. 



A. pellucidum. 



Stems very short. Leaves few, narrowly oblong, 10 — 12 inches long 



and 2 inches broad, recurved, imbricating at the base, obliquely two- 



lobed at the apex. Racemes pendulous, longer than the leaves, many 



flowered. Flowers of semi-transparent texture, close-set, spirally arranged 



round the rachis, on very short pedicels, yellowish white ; sepals and 



petals similar and sub-equal, linear-lanceolate ; lip cordate-ovate, truncate 



at the apex, and fimbriate at the margin ; spur short for the genus, 



not longer than the lip and bent under it. 



Angrsecum pellacidum, Lindl. in Bot. Beg. 1844, t. 2. Listrostachys pellucida, 

 Rchb. in "Walp. Ann. VI. p. 907 (1864). 



Dr. Lindley remarked of this orchid that "its flowers are as 



delicate and transparent as if they were flakes of snow fixed by 



frost in the very act of melting; each part of the lip is studded 



and bordered with little crystalline elevations, and the whole fabric 



of the blossom is as fragile as thin plates of glass." There is 



doubtless a little hyperbole in this encomium, nevertheless the flowers 



of Auijrcccum 2^Mucidum are very peculiar in texture, shape and colour. 



It was introduced from Sierra Leone by Messrs. Loddiges in 1842, 



but it is now rarely seen in British gardens. Our description was 



taken from a plant in the collection of Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., 



at Burford Lodge. The double caudicle of the pollinia places the 



species in the section Listrostachys of Bentham. 



A. pertusmn. 



Stem 6 — 12 inches high, as thick as the little finger. Leaves 

 narrowly strap-shaped, 6—8 inches long, sheathing at the base, un- 

 equally and obliquely two-lobed at the apex. Peduncles nearly as long 

 as the leaves, arching, racemose from near the base. Flowers scarcely 

 exceeding half-an-inch in diameter, white, close-set and symmetrically 



