34 GRAMMATOPHYLLUM. 



by the French botanist Gaudichaud in the Mohiccas, the latter of 

 whom described and figured it in his Voyages hotaniques under the 

 name of Gabertia scripta, a name that cannot be retained as the 

 results of the voyage were not pubHshed till after the appearance 

 of Blume's Bijdragen, in which the genus Grammatophyllum was 

 founded upon it. But it was not till Blume published a coloured 

 plate of it in Rumphia, nearly a quarter of a century later, that 

 the true character of the plant became known, and the surprise of 

 botanists and the longing of horticulturists were awakened. It was 

 introduced by Messrs. Loddiges, and flowered for the first time im- 

 perfectly, in their Hackney nursery in 1852. From that time to 

 the present its flowering in the glass-houses of Europe has been a 

 rare occurrence, and the recorded instances are few. In 1859 it 

 flowered in perfection in the collection of Mr. W. G. Farmer at 

 Nonsuch Park, Surrey ; many years afterwards we learn from the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle that it flowered well in the collection of Sir 

 G. Staunton at Leigh Park, and we believe the late Mr. John Day 

 succeeded in flowering it once, although as in Loddiges' case, very 



imperfectly. 



The {(jilowing extract from a letter received from Mr. James Herbert 



Veitch during his Indian travels will convey an idea of the enormous 



dimensions attained by this gigantic orchid in its native habitat : — " In 



the Botanic Garden at Penang, a specimen on a rising ground isolated 



from other plants and surrounded hy a shrubbery was carefully measured ; 



the circumference was 42|- feet ; the stems are from 6 to 7 feet long, 



the capsules with their stalk are 7 J inches, tdthout it 5 inches long. 



One of the preceding year's racemes, of which there were thirty, Avas 



7^ feet long. The plant is in fine condition, nearly all the stems being 



clothed with foliage of a good colour." 



The geographical range of the species is very extensive. Besides 



the localities named above : it occurs in Java around Buitenzorg, 



where Blume's type was gathered ; it was found by Parish in Tenasserim, 



its probable northern limit; by Scortechini in Perak; by Burbidge 



in Borneo on a prostrate trunk of Dryobalanops aromatica (Camphor 



Tree); and also in the Sulu Islands growing upon a Durian Tree. 



