138 



ANGR^CUM. 



Humblot has caused the plant to become generally distributed among 

 the orchid collections of Europe, where it is readily distinguished 

 from all other Angrsecums by its slender stem of semi-scandent 

 habit, its terete leaves, and its large, almost square lip. 



A. sesquipedale. 



Stem as thick as the little finger, rarely exceeding 2 — 3 feet high 



under cultivation, ligneous below, closely sheathed by the imbricating bases 



of the leaves upwards. Leaves ligTilate-oblong, wavy, about a foot long 



and 1| — 2 inches broad, complicate and sheathing at the base, unequally 



two-lobed at the apex, deep green. Peduncles as long as the 



leaves, 2 — 4 flowered; bracts ovate, acute, keeled, brownish, much 



shorter than the stalked, three-furrowed ovary. Flowers the largest in 



the genus, 5 — 7 inches in diameter, somewliat fleshy, ivory-white ; sepals 



and petals similar, broad at the base and gradually acuminated, the 



petals contracted near the base and narrower than the sepals ; lip 



broader than the other segments, cordate at the base, then oblong and 



irregularly serrated, and terminating in a reflexed acuminate tip ; spur 



greenish, nearly a foot long, flexuose towards the tip. Column very 



short and thick, the rostellum produced into two sub-quadrate lobes 



that almost conceal the stigma. 



Angifficum sesquipedale, Thenars, Orch. lies. Afr. tt. 66-67 (1822). Lindl. in Gard. 

 Chron. 1857, p. 253 ; XII. (1879), p. 305, icon. xyl. Bot. Mag. t. 5113. Van 

 Houtte's i^L des Serves, XIV. t. U13. Warner's Sel. Orch. I. t. 31. Illus. hort. 

 XIII. t. 475. Kegel's Gartenfi. 1872, t. 744. Jennings' Orch. t. 3. Lindenia, IV. 

 t. 175. Ridley in Journ. Linn. Soc. XXI. p. 475. Aeranthus sesquipedalis, Lindl. 

 Gen. et. Sp. Orch. p. 244 (1833). Sander's Ecichenbachia, I. t. 14. 



This, the facile princeps of Angraecums, was discovered towards the 

 end of the last century by the French botanist, Du Petit Thenars, 

 the founder of the genus, but it did not become generally known 

 to science till after the publication, in 1822, of his history of the 

 plants found in Madagascar. It was quite natural that both botanists 

 and horticulturists should long to see so remarkable a plant in the 

 glass-houses of Europe, but owing to the circumstances of the 

 times, a period of thirty-three years elapsed before the wish was 

 realised. To the Rev. W. Ellis, the missionary and historian of 

 Madagascar, is due the merit of first introducing it. In 1855 

 he succeeded in bringing home, with plants of other species of 

 Angraecum, three living plants of Angrcecum sesquipedale, one of which 

 flowered in his garden at Hoddesden, Herts, in the spring of 1857. 

 It continued to be very rare in cultivation for many years after- 

 wards, the many attempts made to re-introduce it meeting with but 

 partial success in consequence of the length of time occupied in 



