ANSELLIA AFRICANA. 
(African Ansellia.) 
Class. 
GYNANDMA. 
Order. 
MONANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
ORCHID ACEiE. 
Generic Character.— Sepals oblong, fleshy, equally 
spread and free. Petals of a regular conformation, and 
amply spread out. Labellum sessile, very flat and 
broad, bilamellate, trilobed ; the middle lobe smaller 
and warty. Column elongate, marginate, auriculate on 
both sides of the base. Anthers bilocular. Pollen- 
masses four, sessile, and contiguous to the base; the 
two dorsal ones much smaller. Glands narrow, acumi- 
nate on both sides. 
Specific Character. — Plant an epiphyte. Stems 
elongate, terete, leafy at the apex. Leaves plaited, 
coriaceous. Panicle terminal.— Bo t. Reg. 
The worth of this beautiful Orchid was known to botanists some years previously 
to its flowering in this country, which it did in different collections early last spring, 
when our drawing was made from a specimen developing blossoms under the care of 
Messrs. Loddiges. With them it succeeds admirably in the ordinary Orchid-house, 
and grows in pots filled with decayed sphagnum moss, to a large bush, consisting of 
many robust stems well provided with healthy foliage. The large panicle of flowers, 
of which a part only is shown in the coloured representation, springs from near the 
apex of the stem which bears it ; but these features, as well as the style of growth 
and habit of the plant, are shown by the cut on the next page. 
Mr. Ansell, a gardener, who went from this country with an expedition that 
ascended the River Niger, in Africa, originally discovered Ansellia Africana in the 
Island of Fernando Po ; and doubtless his doing so was the means of directing 
attention to its value, and ensuring it an introduction to Britain. But independently 
of this, if we are correctly informed, the plant has long had a place as an unnamed 
member of some collections ; indeed it had so previously to its being found by 
Mr. Ansell, after whom the genus has been named by Dr. Lindley. In the Botanical 
Register for this year, Dr. L. says of this plant that " It is indeed a noble thing; for 
although its flowers have somewhat the colour and appearance of a large Cymbid, 
yet their panicled disposition, and the entirely different habit of the plant, render it 
much more showy than any Cymbid known to us. Its nearest affinity is perhaps 
with Bromheadia, with which it corresponds in having a lengthened stem and ter- 
minal inflorescence ; and thus it may serve as a connecting link between the Brassid 
VOL. xiii. — NO. CLV. I I 
