Plate 186 



SACCOLABIUM AMPULLACEUM 



Bottle-lipped Saccolahkim. 



Gen. Char. [Vide supra, Plate 130.) 



Saccolabium ampullaceum ; caule brevissimo, foliis crassissiinis distichis ligulatis canaliculatis 

 apice truncatis dentatis,, racemis oblongis erectis foliis multo brevioribus^ sepalis petalisqno 

 ovatis patentibus subsequalibus, labello angusto acuminato concavo calcarc comprcsso pendulo 

 duplo breviore. LincU. 



Saccolabium ampullaceum. LincU. 8ert. Orch. t. 17. PaM. Mag. v. 13. t. 49. 

 Aeeides ampullaceum. Roxh. Fl. Lid. v. S. p. 476. 



This is a neat, compact, and beautiful plant, it is likewise perfectly distinct from 

 any other species of the genus at present known. It was figured so long ago as 1838 

 oy Dr. Lindley, in his ' Sertum,' but his plate was copied from a drawing in the pos- 

 session of the East India Company. ' A few liviug specimens found their way shortly 

 afterwards into collections, — one of which that flowered at Cliatsworth was figured in 

 'raxton's Magazine,' — but the plant continued exceedingly rare until Messrs. H. Low 

 and Co. received a supply from one of their Indian collectors. The accompanying 

 gure was taken from a plant that flowered at Kew in May 1866. 



S. ampullaceum is a native of Sylhet, where it was found growing upon trees by 

 ime of Dr. Roxburgh's correspondents. Dr. Wallich met with it near Bemphcdy, and 



also gathered in Sikkim by Drs. Hooker and Thomson. Its time of flowering, 



fi 



both in India and in our gardens, is the spring. It grows slowly, rarely producin 

 offsets, but is easily managed. Nothing can be more charming than its brigh 





coloured racemes, which are freely produced, and last long in beauty 



Descr. a dwarf plant, not rising more than six inches high, usually with a simple 

 '^^em. Leaves barely a span long, distichous, very thick, ligulate, with the edges nearly 

 P^i-allel, carinate beneath, channelled above, truncated and irregularly toothed at the 

 ^Pex. Floivers of a deep 



rose-colour, growing in erect, oblong, axillary 



hich 



