SACCOLABIUM BLUMEI RUSSELIANUM. 
[PLaTE 238.] 
Native of Java. 
Epiphytal. Stems short, erect, bearing a dense close-set tuft of foliage, and 
stout terete fleshy roots. Leaves persistent, arcuate, channelled, distichous, elongate- 
lorate, unequally truncate at the apex, of a deep green colour, marked on _ the 
under side with parallel lines of deeper green. Scapes axillary, bearing long pendu- 
lous massive cylindrical racemes or spikes densely packed with prettily marked 
flowers, the inflorescence often two feet in length, the rachis bright green. Flowers 
comparatively large, very numerous, forming a crowded plume-like raceme; sepals 
ovate-oblong, incurved, blunt, white, beautifully marked with transverse dots of 
magenta purple; petals rather smaller and more oblong, but of nearly the same 
size and form, and also similar in colour and marking; lip with a roundish-oblong 
recurved elbowed limb, which is emarginate at the tip, costate, somewhat concave 
above, of a soft magenta purple, just tipped with white, and having at the base a 
compressed bluntish spur, pubescent within. Column short, beaked. 
SaccoLaBiumM Biumet Rvussexranum, Williams, Orchid-Grower’s Manual, 6 ed., 
64. 
This remarkably handsome genus is a special favourite with some growers, but 
it should, we think, be an universal favourite, at least with those persons who 
admire Nature’s productions, as there are no Orchids that have a more handsome and 
telling appearance when grown and flowered in perfection. We have seen them 
exhibited in great beauty, for example, S. guttatum, with twenty or more racemes 
hanging gracefully among the foliage; even a few spikes of these picturesque flowers 
on a well-managed plant produce a handsome and noble appearance. In some 
collections we meet with vigorous healthy plants, and where that is the case they 
are much prized by those who possess them. 
The group we now illustrate by a figure of Saccolabium Blumer Russelianum is 
a@ most charming one. The present is indeed a most wonderful variety, and was sold 
by us to R. H. Measures, Esq., of Streatham, who flowered it finely last year; 
and it is from this plant that our drawing was prepared. The small sketch shows 
the leneth of the spikes, which measured twenty-four inches, and as may well be 
imagined had a most beautiful appearance. It is a very rare plant, and was 
first bloomed by the late J. Russel, Esq., of Falkirk, N.B., in whose honour it 
Was named. 
Saccolabium Blumei Russelianum is a plant of compact evergreen habit with dark 
green foliage and long massive flower spikes, the blossoms being large and densely 
packed in the spikes; the sepals and petals are white tinged with rose and finely 
