6 THE ORCHID REVIEW. (JANUARY, 1915+ 
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¢| GRAMMATOPHYLLUM SPECIOSUM AND ITS ALLIES. q| 
HE flowering of the giant Grammatophyllum speciosum is a rare event 
in Europe, and that of the Kew plant (see page 372 of our December 
issue) reminds us that there are several allied species whose history is very 
imperfectly known, while that of G. speciosum itself has been much 
confused. There are two quite distinct sections in lhe genus, one 
characterised by its long subcylindrical closely-leafy stems, as in the 
original G. speciosum, the other having short oblong much-swollen 
pseudobulbs, as in G. scriptum, Blume, and the better-known G. 
Rumphianum, Mig. (Bot. Mag., t. 7507). The latter group may be called 
section Gabertia, as it includes Gaudichaud’s genus of the same name, 
while the former may be distinguished as section Eugrammatophyllum, and 
to it the present notes are confined. 
GRAMMATOPHYLLUM SPECIOSUM, the original species of the genus, was 
described by Blume in 1825 (Bijdr., p. 378, t. 20), asa giant Orchid found 
on trees in the neighbourhood of Buitenzorg, Java. Afterwards a fine’ 
coloured plate was given (Rumphia, iv. p. 47, t- 191), and the locality 
Cochin China was added, on the authority of a specimen collected by 
Finlayson at Pulo Dinding, which is a small island on the west coast of the 
Malay Peninsula, off Perak. The fact is mentioned because the mistake 
has been several times repeated. Finlayson’s discovery represents the 
earliest record of the species that we know of. He landed in the evening of 
January goth, 1822, on Pulo Dinding, which he describes as a beautiful 
granite island, covered with almost impenetrable woods from the margin of 
the sea to the summit, and he then goes on to remark: ‘‘ At about half a 
mile distant north from an old and ruined fort, once occupied by the Dutch, 
we found an Epidendrum of gigantic size, the most elegant plant perhaps 
of the numerous tribe to which it belongs. Nothing in the vegetable world 
could exceed in beauty the appearance of the stately plant as it stood erect 
on the stem of an aged tree, surrounded by its flowing leaves, rather 
resembling the frond of a palm than the leaf of an herbaceous plant. The 
flowering spike alone exceeded six feet in length, contained nearly one 
hundred flowers, and was now in full blossom. The flowers exhaled a most 
grateful but mild odour; they were about two inches and a half across, and 
upwards of four, including the foot-stalk, in length.” —Finlayson, Mission to 
Stam, p. 35. Good specimens were procured, which were afterwards 
identified with Blume’s plant, and are now preserved in the Lindley and 
Wallichian Herbaria at Kew (n. 7360). 
Griffith afterwards collected a plant in Malacca which Lindley, in 1852, 
