t 4i 
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 off, 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 
giyv/tb the development is arrested and the new shon is starved. 
Whei the last year’s stem is empty, it shrinks and dues up or rots 
away. The leaves of the plant are narrow and grassv, flaccid and 
decu ved. & 
Tne flower spikes are produced in the end of August and Sep- 
tember and grow with surprising rapidity from the base of the 
stems. I hey 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 
ate 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 
t he 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 III. 
I he 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, hut 
if allowed to remain quite, spoils the blooming of these orchids in 
a very short time. 
i he flowers are lertili^ed by 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. — I he 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 b'e taken not to plant it too deep. The base 
should only be covered enough to hold tne plant in place. The 
mound need not be kept absolutely free of weeds; it is even better if 
such ferns as will stand full sun, such as Davallia elegans and 
Poly podium 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 
