May, 1908.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 133 
for the plant’s food, and to which the roots adhere. The habit is quite 
persistent, for in cultivation these roots invariably wander from the basket 
of compost into the surrounding air. They also flower very profusely when 
first brought home, but soon dwindle away, or, as is often said, ‘* flower 
themselves to death,” but this only arises from the difficulty of providing 
proper treatment for them. If this were secured, they would thrive as well 
as in their native homes. 
Angrecum Eichlerianum is also reproduced from a photograph of a 
plant in the Kew collection. In this case the plant is not tufted, but has 
erect stems, which gradually lengthen, and keep on throwing out aérial 
roots, some of which cling to their support, but others wander free into the 
air, as seen in the picture. The flowers are produced in short axillary 
peduncles, each bearing a single large greenish-white flower, but many 
appear together at the proper season, rendering the plant most graceful and 
attractive. The lip, it will be noticed, bears at its base a prominent spur 
or nectary, which secretes honey, and this serves to attract the insects 
which fertilise the flower. In the case of Angraecum sesquipedale the spur 
is very long, in extreme cases as much as 134 inches, and it is supposed that 
in Madagascar, its native home, there exists some moth with a very long 
proboscis, which acts as the fertilising insect. 
The next slide shows Sarcochilus luniferus, a very remarkable Indian 
Orchid, which appears to consist entirely of a mass of fleshy roots, pro- 
ceeding from a very short stem, and the inflorescence, the leaves being 
absent. Like the genus Tzniophyllum (which is rarely seen in cultivation), 
it may be described as leafless, though in rare cases tiny leaves are pro- 
duced, showing that the plant has descended from a leafy ancestor, though 
it is now able to get along very well without such apparently essential 
appendages as leaves. The fact is the leaf function has been turned over 
to the roots, as these contain chlorophyll, which carry on the nutrition of 
the plant quite effectively. This type of vegetation is not rare among 
tropical Orchids, though it is not often seen in cultivation. The genus 
Teniophyllum, which is closely allied to Saccolabium, and ranges from 
India through the Malayan Archipelago to Australia and Polynesia, has 
entirely this habit. There is at least one other leafless Indian Sarco- 
chilus. Angraecum has several leafless species in Madagascar and Tropical 
Africa. The small genus Dendrophylax has also the same character, while 
Campylocentrum, another American genus closely allied to Angreecum, has 
several leafless species. In all these plants the functions of the leaves are 
carried on by the roots, which invariably contain chlorophyll, and the 
peculiarity has evidently arisen through a deciduous habit. The roots of 
Phalznopsis and other epiphytic Orchids contain chlorophyll, which would 
enable them to exist for a time without leaves, and a few species of 
