Juty-Aucust, 1918 ] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 167 
ieee | STAUROPSIS IMTHURNII. | Zoe 
Tl 
HE distinct and striking Stauropsis Imthurnii, Rolfe, is again blooming 
at Kew, the inflorescence being about four feet long, and bearing 
fifteen side branches. The species was described and figured some time 
ago in the Botanical Magazine (t. 8714), as follows :—‘‘ This fine Stauropsis 
is remarkable for its exceptional size and its ample lax panicle of white 
flowers with violet blue markings on the lip. A native of the Solomon 
Islands, Kew is indebted for the plant to Sir Everard im Thurn, who met 
with it in 1903 when visiting that Archipelago on H.M.S. Torch, as 
Governor of Fiji and High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. At 
Langa Langa, on the west coast of Mala (Malaita) Island, an opportunity 
was afforded of botanising in the bush. In a forest with many large 
canopy trees, but little undergrowth, the plant figured was found on a 
fallen trunk on which grew a dense mass of other Orchids with ferns and > 
grasses; it bore the remains of a fairly recent flower-spike. On reaching 
Fiji it was planted on a topped tree fern under a ‘ bush house’ in the 
gardens of Government House. It showed no sign of a new flower-spike 
until May, 1908. This spike was under a foot long in August, 1909, when 
it began to develop more rapidly, but still showed no tendency to branch. 
In March, 1910, Fiji was ravaged by a violent hurricane. The Stauropsis 
was rescued from the bush house by Mr. D. Yeoward, Curator of the Fiti 
Betanic Station, and brought intact to the ruins of Government House, 
where it was fastened for safety underneath a billiard table. After the 
storm it was reinstalled on its old tree-fern stem, and during the next seven 
months its spike branched to some extent, and produced two rather poor 
flowers. In November, 1910, it was brought from Fiji by Sir Everard, and 
after a journey across Canada was sent from Liverpool to Kew, where it 
has since thriven well in the Tropical Orchid: House, coming once more 
‘nto flower in September, 1916. During flowering the prolonged develop- 
ment of the spike described by Sir Everard as regards 1908-10 has been 
equally manifest, but during 1914-16 branching has been more extensive.” 
The species was also met with in August, 1910, by Mr. C. M. Woodford, 
British Resident at Tulagi, Solomon Islands, who shortly afterwards sent 
a sketch and an imperfect dried specimen to Kew. This plant was met 
With on the north side of Ysabel Island, when the flowering period 
appeared to be nearly over, but Mr. Woodford remarked that he had met 
with the species once before, on which occasion it was not in flower. 
The genus now consists of over a dozen species, ranging from India and 
China to New Guinea. Several of them are known in cultivation.— 
NAR, 
