M.'u'ch. 1915.1 



'I'llI-: ORCMIID WORLD. 



123 



Ornithocephalus grandiflorus. 



Ornithocephalus grandiflorus. — It 

 has often been remarked that the smaller the 

 flower so much the more remarkable is its 

 structure. O. grandiflorus is no exception to 

 the rule ; indeed, it is one of the most curious. 

 The genus was formed by Hooker, and the 

 specific name applied by Lindley. It is 

 commonly known as the " Bird's Head 

 Orchid " by reason of the long tail-like gland 

 attached to the pollen masses. No satisfactory 

 decision has ever been given regarding this 

 unusually extended organ. In Cattleyas the 

 usual size of the caudicle connecting the 

 actual pollen grains with the viscid gland is 

 rarely more than an eighth of an inch in 

 length, but in the subject of this note, which 

 is a very much smaller flower, it is fully half 

 an inch long, while the position of the gland 

 is not where one would expect it — just where 



1he insect's head would be when visiting the 

 flower — but placed near the end of the 

 labellum furthest from the column. Exactly 

 how fertilisation is accomplished is by no 

 means certain. The plant is dwarf growing, 

 and produces scapes from the axils of the 

 leaves. The flowers, which measure about 

 5 inch across, are white, each segment having 

 an emerald-green blotch at its base. This 

 species was originally discovered by Gardner 

 on the Organ Mountains in southern Brazil in 

 1837, and was described by Dr. Lindley 

 shortly afterwards from Gardner's herbarium 

 specimen. Nothing more appears to have 

 been seen of it till 1882, when fresh specimens 

 for identification were sejit to Reichenbach 

 by M. Witte, curator of the University Botanic 

 Garden at Leyden, and about the same time 

 by M. Liiddemann at Paris. Two years later 



