AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 5.] MAY, 1905. [Vol. IV. 
GRAMMATOPHYLli M SPECIOSTJM. 
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 KUng. This plant was originally intended for the great Chicago 
Exhibition, hut 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 vvlfle 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 and broken bricks, etc., and 
in that case the stems become ,snorter and erect as shown in Plate 
I, and the plant is certainly metre floriferous. When growing on a 
tree (Plate II), the 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. 
