﻿September, 1504.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



ARACHNANTHE LOWII. 



This remarkable Orchid is not often seen in flower, and less frequently- 

 exhibited, except occasionally in a cut state ; it was therefore the more 

 interesting to find a noble specimen of it, bearing four of its long pendulous 

 racemes, in the group exhibited by Messrs. Sander & Sons at the Royal 

 Horticultural Hall, on August 9th last. The enormously attenuated 

 racemes are sufficiently remarkable, but what specially arrests attention is 

 the constant occurrence of two kinds of flowers on the same inflorescence. 

 The lowermost flowers are invariably different from the rest. They may 

 be two, three, or four in number, but they are invariably distinguished by 

 having broader, flatter sepals and petals, of a bright orange-yellow, dotted 

 with brown, while the remainder have narrower, distinctly undulate sepals 

 and petals, which are irregularly blotched with dull crimson on a greenish 

 yellow ground. The transition from the one kind to the other is so abrupt, 

 and the differences so striking as to attract immediate attention, but up to 

 the present no satisfactory reason has been assigned for the peculiarity. 

 It can scarcely be a sexual difference, as in the Catasetum group, for so far 

 as can be seen on examination the pollinia and stigma are equally perfect 

 in both, but its constancy shows that it has some significance in the 

 economy of the species, and we hope some day to see the mystery 

 explained. It probably has some relation to its insect visitors and the 

 fertilisation of the flowers, but failing the opportunity of observing the 

 plant in its native home, it is difficult to offer even a plausible suggestion. 

 So acute an observer as Alfred Russell Wallace, who saw the plant in 

 Borneo, and figured it in his Malay Arch Ipei : . . - ;. 



allusion to it, nor indeed to its two kinds of flowers, though he speaks of it 

 as a most extraordinary plant, and as being particularly abundant near 

 some hot springs at the foot of Peninjauh Mountain, hanging from the 

 lower branches of the trees, and bearing numerous pendulous spikes of six 

 to eight feet long, one, which was carefully measured, being as much as 

 9 feet 8 inches long, and carrying 36 flowers, which were spirally arranged 

 on the slender stalk. 



The plant is a native of Borneo, and appears to have been first detected 

 by Sir Hugh Low about the year 1845, and described by Dr. Lindley from 

 materials sent home by him under the name of Vanda Lowei {Gard. Chron., 

 1847, p. 239). A plant mentioned by the discoverer must have presented a 

 fine sight, for it is described as having about two hundred of its branches 

 hanging horizontally from a large tree, each branch bearing two, three, or 

 four chains of flowers, 10 to 12 feet long. No mention is made of the 

 occurrence of two kinds of flowers on the racemes. It is said to grow on 

 lofty trees on the river banks, and other humid places, being always found 

 i n the neighbourhood of water, and Messrs. Veitch remark that, over- 



