268 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
GRAMMATOPHYLLUM SPECIOSUM. 
THE flowering of the remarkable Grammatophyllum speciosum, the giant of 
its race, in the collection of Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., Burford, Dorking, 
is an event of considerable interest, for the plant is not only rare in cultiva- 
tion, but seldom reaches that state of maturity necessary for the production 
of flowers. Four previous cases are on record, but none of them very 
recent. Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, first flowered it in Europe, in 1852, . 
and the event is thus recorded :—* At last the long cherished wish to see 
this in flower is realised. After years of patience, Mr. Loddiges succeeded 
in persuading it to expand a few blossoms last summer, all of which were 
in a monstrous state except one. Nevertheless they enabled our artist to 
prepare the accompanying figure, which gives some idea of what the plant 
is, only the flowering scape proceeded from the top instead of the bottom of 
the stem, whence it arises in a natural condition.” (Lindl. in Paxt. Fl. Gard., 
ii. p. 157, t. 69.) 
In October, 1859, it flowered perfectly in the collection of W. G. 
Farmer, Esq., of Nonsuch Park, Ewell (gr. Mr. Carson), and was figured in. 
the Botanical Magazine (t. 5157). The old pseudobulbs of this plant are 
recorded as nine to ten feet long, and the scape six feet high, and Sir 
William Hooker remarked :—“ From _ its vigorous vegetation, and the 
remarkable size of the flowers, it richly merits the title of the Queen of 
Orchidaceous Plants.” The two other recorded instances are, in the 
collection ot Sir G. Taunton, at Leigh Park, where it flowered well, and in 
that of J. Day, Esq., at Tottenham, very imperfectly. 
Some idea of the dimensions which the plant attains in a wild state may 
be gathered from the following notes. Mr. A. Keyser, Resident Magistrate at 
Selangor, records a plant which he found growing on a Durian tree. It 
measured 7ft. 2in. high, and 13}ft. across, and bore seven spikes of © 
flowers, the longest being 8ft. 6in. high. It took fifteen men to move it 
(Gard., Chron., 1890, vii., p- 265). Mr. J. H. Veitch speaks of one at the 
Botanic Garden, at Penang, as 42}ft. in circumference, the stems from 
six to seven feet long, the capsules with their stalk 7}in. long, with- 
out it 5in., and one of the preceding year’s racemes, of which there were 
thirty, 7}ft. long (Veitch Man. Orch., ix., p. 34). Still more remarkable. is 
the one at the Buitenzorg Botanic Garden, Java, of which an account is 
given by J. C. Costerus in a paper entitled “‘ Teratology studied in the 
Tropics.” (Ann. Jard. Bot. de Buitenz., xiii., pp. 111-113) :—‘* Before the 
head-gardener’s house stands a very big tree (Canarium commune), on 
which a huge specimen of Grammatophyllum has settled.. The plant 
forms a gigantic nest of roots continually spreading and enclosing the big 
trunk of the Canary tree. In 1892, when I visited the garden, this specimen 
