I 42 



After the flowering period, many of these stems shed their leaves 

 and die, others springing up from the base. These dead stems 

 must on no account be cut-o r f, however shabby they look, till they 

 are quite shrunken, because they contain the food-supply for the 

 next shoot; and if cut off before the starch has passed into the new 

 growth, the development is arrested and the new shoot is starved. 

 When the last year's stem is empty, it shrinks and dries up or rots 

 away. The leaves of the plant are narrow and grassy, flaccid and 

 decurved. 



The flower spikes are produced in the end of August and Sep- 

 tember and giow with surprising rapidity from the base of the 

 stems. They attain a height of about six to ten feet, and bear 

 about 125 to 135 flowers each. The flowers open three or four at 

 a time on each spike, so that the plant remains in flower for nearly 

 two months. The five or six lowest ones at the base of the stem 

 are always abnormal, possessing no lip and a rudimentary column, 

 and consisting of two opposite pairs of petals. The normal flowers 

 arc three inches across, with the petals and sepals yellow, spotted 

 with brown (whence its name of Leopard orchid). The lip is hairy 

 and dull pink. There is not much variation in the colouring of the 

 flowers, but in some forms (e.g., the big one alluded to previously 

 as brought from Malacca) the ground colour is a brighter yellow 

 and the spots smaller and of a richer brown. This is the most 

 beautiful form I have seen. The number of flower spikes produced 

 on a strong plant is well shown in the Plate I. There were 64 in 

 the plant figured and altogether produced about 8,000 flowers, but 

 it has been even more floriferous than this. A figure of a portion 

 of the spike is also given. Plate 111. 



The flowers are liable to the attacks of a yellow beetle, half an 

 inch long, which also attacks Arundina and Renanthera flowers. 

 Its grub is a slimy-looking thing which lives concealed in a white 

 frothy mass which it excretes. It is easily found an 1 destroyed, but 

 if allowed to remain quite, spoils the blooming of these orchids in 

 a very short time. 



I he flowers are fertilized bv wasps or carpenter-bees, and about 

 March ripen their fruits which' are as large as a duck's egg. Not 

 many are produced, however, the plant figured produced only 25 

 capsules this year in spite of the enormous number of flowers it 



produced. 



Cultivation Notes.— The plant may be grown on the ground on a 

 raised mound about a foot or more high of leaf mould broken bricks, 

 tiles, etc., but care must he taken not to plant it too deep. The base 

 should only be covered enough to hold the plant in place. The 

 mound need not be kept absolutely free of weeds; it is even better if 

 such ,erns as wail stand full sun, such as Davallia elegans and 

 rolypodiurn phymatodes, are allowed to grow over the mound so as 

 to shade the base. The plant does best in full sun. It may also be 

 grown on an old stump to which it must be tied or in the fork of a 

 tree. As it requires to be a good-sized plant before it flowers really 



