LESSER KNOWN ORCHIDS. 



387 



an orchid of pendulous habit of growth. This plant clearly indicates by the 

 direction of its pseudo-bulbs, that it must be grown in a hanging position. 

 True, it might be mistaken without leaves for an upright grower, but the 

 mistake would soon be discovered, and it refuses to grow in such a 

 position. In fact it dies in a short time unless grown in the position it 

 likes. If this detail be attended to there is no difficulty in cultivating it, 

 and in getting it to flower regularly. It flowered at Glasnevin in 1896, 

 and each year since then. It is not by any means a showy orchid, but it 

 is curious and striking. I find it does best in an intermediate house 

 temperature. The leaves are very glaucous, lanceolate, and quite a foot 



Fig. 57. — Epidendrum vesicatum. 



long. The flowers are produced freely from the bases of the old pseudo- 

 bulbs just before growth commences. They are pale yellowish green. It 

 is a native of Peru. 



Lindley's Epidendrum vesicatum (fig. 57), from Brazil, is another 

 instance, but in its case cause and effect are quite apparent. The leaves 

 are thick and very glaucous. They are sharply folded inwards at the midrib, 

 united at the base, free above, so that they are almost amplexicaul, and 

 equitant. They are scale-like at the base, gradually becoming larger, the 

 upper pair forming a large open cup in w r hich the flowers are. A series 

 of small tanks is thus formed, and if the stem be kept upright water 

 lodges in these tanks and the leaves damp off, hence the necessity for the 

 pendulous position. The flowers are white to pink, about -J inch across. 



