﻿THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



[July, 1904. 



VANILLA HUMBLOTII. 



A very handsome species of Vanilla has just flowered in the collection of 

 Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., Burford, Dorking. It was at first supposed to 

 be V. Phalasnopsis, Rchb. f., and a note respecting it has appeared under this 

 name {Card. World, 1904, p. 481), but on comparison proves to be quite 

 different, and I believe it to be V. Humblotii, Rchb. f., a species. discovered 

 in the Great Comoro Islands by M. Leon Humblot, and described in 1885 

 from dried specimens (Gard. Chron,, 1885, i, p. 726). Mr. White states 

 that the Burford plant was sent from Madagascar by M. Hamelin, and is 

 now flowering for the first time. It was received in June, 1900. The stem 

 w as then wired on to a teak raft, which was fixed into a large pot filled with 

 sphagnum moss, and stood upright on the stage in the hottest house. The 

 position and treatment seemed to suit it, as it soon began to grow vigorously, 

 and during the first year it reached the top of the raft. The next growth 

 was trained horizontally by a piece of string along the roof of the house, 

 and it has now reached a length of 10 or 12 feet. The inflorescence 

 was produced about four feet from the top. The species belongs to the 

 leafless section of the genus, and is remarkably handsome, the flowers being 

 large and bright yellow, with some bright brown markings on the front of 

 the lip, and a mass of rosy crimson hairs in the throat, forming a very 

 striking contrast. The stem is also remarkable, being glaucous-green in 

 colour, and bearing numerous irregular blackish green warts, which give it 

 the appearance of being " spotted like a snake." The stem is very stout at 

 the base, measuring slightly over an inch in diameter, but more slender 

 above, the upper internodes measuring 3^ to 4 inches long by 5 to 

 6 lines broad. The glaucous colour is due to the presence of 

 innumerable whitish, partially confluent dots on a dull green ground. An 

 aerial root is produced at each node, at the side of the bract-like sheath, 

 which represents the leaf in this section of the genus. The inflorescence is 

 quite stem-like in shape and colour, except that the warts are less numerous. 

 It measures 6 inches long, and bears 6 flowers, which open in succession. 

 They are rather fugitive, showing signs of fading on the second day. The 

 bracts are ovate-oblong, 6 to 10 lines long, and flesh-brown in colour ; 

 and the pedicels are 2 to 2^ inches long. The flowers have an expanse of 5£ 

 inches, and the sepals and petals are spreading, the former being 10 to n 

 lines broad, and the latter 16 lines. The colour is bright canary-yellow in 

 front and cream-white behind. The lip is entire, apiculate, with undulate 

 margin, 2\ inches long by over an inch broad, and united to the column at 

 the base, forming a tube 6 to 7 lines long. The brown band on the 

 lip takes the form of a V-shaped marking, with the point downwards, while 

 from either apex extends a broad zone of the same colour towards the 



