SEPTEMBER, 1914 | THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
283. 
OME interesting details respecting Madagascar Orchids are given by 
the Rev. W. Ellis in his work entitled ‘“‘ Three Visits to Madagascar,” 
published in 1858, and the following appears under the heading “ Singular 
localities of Angreecums ” (pp. 177-179), accompanied by a woodcut. Mr, 
Ellis was the discoverer of Angraecum Ellisii, a species which was named 
in his honour by Reichenbach. 
Orchids were abundant, and often occupied positions in which the 
growers of these plants in England would little expect to find them, but in 
which they gave an indescribable singularity and charm to the landscape. 
The Limodorums were numerous in parts of the road, and formed quite a 
ball of interlaced roots at the base of the bulbs. A small species, 
resembling in habit and growth the Camarotis purpurea, but quite 
unknown to me, and bearing a vast profusion of white and sulphur-tinted 
flowers, often enlivened the sides of the road along which we passed. But 
the Angreecums, both A. superbum and A. sesquipedale, were the most 
abundant and beautiful. I noticed that they grew most plentifully on trees 
of thinnest foliage, and that the A. sesquipedale was seldom, if ever, seen on 
the ground, but grew high up amongst the branches, often throwing out long 
straggling stems terminating in a few small, and often apparently shrivelled 
leaves. The roots also partook of the same habit. They were seldom 
branched or spreading, but long, tough, and single, sometimes running 
down the branch or trunk of a tree, between the fissures in the rough bark, 
to the length of twelve or fifteen feet, and so tough and tenacious that it 
required considerable force to detach or break them. Many of them were 
in flower, and, notwithstanding the small, shrivelled appearance of the 
leaves, the flowers were large, and the yellow colour strongly marked. On 
More than one occasion I saw a splendid Angraecum sesquipedale growing 
On the trunk of a decaying or fallen tree, and sending its tough roots down 
the trunk to the moist parts of the vegetation on the ground. I found one 
decayed tree lying on the ground almost overgrown with grass and ferns, 
On the rotten trunk of which the A. sesquipedale was growing most 
luxuriantly, The root; which had penetrated the soft trunk of this dead 
tree were white and fleshy, while the leaves were longer and comparatively 
Soft and green. There were neither flowers nor flower-stalks on any of the 
Plants growing in the rich vegetable mould furnished by this old dead tree. 
The habits of the A. superbum were quite different. Of these the fleshy 
foots formed a sort of network at the base of the bulb. During the neared 
I Continually noticed both kinds growing not only on the branches of living 
trees, but very often high up on the bare barked trunks of the dead trees. 
ANGR/ECUMS IN MADAGASCAR. 
