298 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [OcTOBER, 1912. 
nine inches long, as a curious feature, recalling Habenaria longicauda and 
Agreecum sesquipedale, and remarked: ‘‘ For what wise purpose these 
extraordinary appendages may have been designed by Nature we may well 
be unable to imagine.” Somewhat later it was figured in the Botanical 
Magazine (t. 4370), from a plant in the Clowes collection, which had been 
bequeathed to Kew. The species was-afterwards collected on the Brass 
River, a tributary of the Niger, by Barter, a dried specimen collected by him 
bearing eight flowers. It is now known as Listrostachys caudata, having been 
transferred to Listrostachys by Reichenbach, in 1864 (Walp. Ann., vi. p. 
907), on account of the double stipes of the pollinia. In 1886 a plant was 
exhibited at a meeting of the R.H.S. bearing a ten-flowered inflorescence, 
and such a plant is shown in a painting in Reichenbachia (ser. 1. ii. p. 41, t- 
67). Itisa very striking plant, its long twisted spurs giving it a remarkable 
appearance. The sepals, petals, and spur are brownish green in colour, 
and the limb of the lip white. It flowers regularly during late summer and 
autumn. The species is rare in gardens, but not difficult to cultivate 
under proper conditions. It should be grown in the Warm house, in a 
constantly moist atmosphere of 75° to 80° in summer, and 60° to 65° in 
winter, during which latter period less water is required. The Kew plant 
is grown on a block, and has four growths, two of which are now flowering. 
The photograph, taken by Mr. F. W. Rolfe, represents the plant about one- 
third natural size. The insect which fertilises the flowers is, we believe, 
unknown, but it is probably some large moth or butterfly, in which connection 
the following paragraph from Darwin will be read with interest :—- 
“‘ The Angreecum sesquipedale, of which the large six-rayed flowers, like 
stars formed of snow-white wax, have excited the admiration of travellers in 
Madagascar, must not be passed over. A green, whip-like nectary of 
astonishing length hangs down beneath the labellum. In several flowers 
sent me by Mr.’ Bateman I found the nectaries eleven and a-half inches 
long, with only the lower inch and a-half filled with nectar. What can be 
the use, it may be asked, of a nectary of such disproportionate length? We 
shall, I think, see that the fertilisation of the plant depends on this length, 
and on nectar being contained only within the lower and attenuated 
extremity. It is, however, surprising that any insect should be able to 
reach the nectar. Our English Sphinxes have proboscides as long as their 
bodies; but in Madagascar there must be moths with proboscides capable: 
of extension to a length of between ten and eleven inches! This belief of 
mine has been ridiculed by some entomologists, but we now know from 
Fritz Miiller that there is a Sphinx-like moth in South Brazil which has a 
proboscis of nearly sufficient length, for when dried it was between ten and 
eleven inches long. When not protruded it is coiled up into a spiral of at 
least twenty windings.” 
