AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 



OF THE 



STRAITS 



AND 



FEDERATED MALAY STATES, 



MAY, 1905. [Vol. IV. 



GRAMMATOPHYLLUM SPECIOSUM. 



Plates I — III. 



This superb orchid, so characteristic of the Malay region, is pro- 

 bably the largest species of the order in the world, though its flowers 

 are by no means as large as many others. One of the biggest plants 

 in the Botanic Gardens weighed three quarters of a ton when it was 

 taken down from the tree on which it grew, at Malacca near Tan- 

 jong Kling. This plant was originally intended for the great Chicago 

 Exhibition, but its immense size and weight made it so difficult to 

 handle that it was much damaged in transit, and a smaller one was 

 sent which eventually found its way into the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 where it recently commenced to flower. 



The plant has a rather wide distribution ranging from Tenasserim 

 through the Malay Peninsula to Borneo, Java, the Philippines and 

 Solomon Islands, whence, lately, Mr. WOODFORD sent a drawing and 

 some dried flowers. Properly speaking, it is epiphytic, growing on 

 trees overhanging streams, or in mangrove swamps or high up on 

 lofty trees in the forests; but, occasionally, when it falls from the tree 

 it goes on growing on the ground. In cultivation, it is usually grown 

 on the ground in a mound made of soil an 1 broken bricks, etc., and 

 in that case the stems become shorter and erect as shown in Plate 

 I, and the plant is certainly more floriferous. When growing on a 

 tree (Plate II), the stems become longer and gracefully decurved, 

 attaining a length often of over ten feet; the flower spikes stand 

 quite erect. 



The plant emits from the base a large number of curious erect 

 branched roots, and care should be taken not to allow these to be 

 injured or cut away, or the plant will make but slow growth and 

 will not flower. Big plants produce a vast number of stems espe- 

 cially if grown on the ground. These stems are six to ten feet long 

 and as thick as the wrist deeply grooved, and oval in section. 



No. 5.] 



