1880 . ] 
ANTHURIUM ANDREANUM. 
97 
ANTHURIUM ANDREANUM. 
[Plate 517.] 
E have already, at p. 78, noticed the 
flowering of Anthurium Andreanum , 
and of its subsequent exhibition 
both at Ghent and in London. The figure 
published from dried specimens by M. Linden 
three years ago ( Illust . Hort ., 1877, xxiv., 
t. 271), led to great expectations regarding its 
beauty ; and these, now that it has flowered for 
the first time since its introduction, and when 
it cannot be supposed to have attained its best 
condition, have been more than realised. No 
finer plant has for many years been added 
to our collections, and when submitted at the 
meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society at 
South Kensington on April loth, it was ac¬ 
corded a First-class Certificate by acclamation. 
Anthurium Andreanum (written Andrceanum , 
both by Linden and Engler), as we have 
already stated, is a plant of tufted habit, as, 
indeed, is well shown in the annexed woodcut 
from the Gardeners’ Chronicle. The petioles, 
which are ascending, slender, cylindrical, and 
thickened at the top, support a cordate oblong, 
glabrous, leathery blade, which is dark green 
above, paler beneath, and marked by a few 
prominent nerves, and is, moreover, attached by 
a kind of hinge, which permits it to assume 
either a deflexed or a spreading position. The 
slender flower-stalk is erect, considerably longer 
than the leaf-stalk, and terminates in the de- 
curved spadix, which is about three inches long, 
as thick as a swan's quill, ivory-white at the 
base, greenish-yellow at the tip, and is sur¬ 
rounded by the spreading cordate acute, firm- 
textured leathery spathe, which is conspicuously 
and irregularly corrugated, and of a brilliant 
scarlet hue, like pure sealing-wax, with the sur¬ 
face shining as if varnished—the colour much 
more intense and brilliant than that of A. 
Scherzerianum. It belongs to the section 
named Cardiophyllum , which includes A. regale 
and A . crystallinum , with their allies. 
This grand novelty, M. Andre states, was 
discovered in May, 1876, in the State of 
Cauca (not Choco), in Columbia. The first 
batch of it sent to Europe arrived in bad con¬ 
dition, but a second venture, by the Indians 
who accompanied M. Andre in his explorations, 
was more successful, and in May, 1878, after 
his return to Paris, M. Andre was fortunate 
No. 31. IMPERIAL SERIES. 
enough to receive another importation of it, 
which was placed in M. Linden’s hands. The 
plant, it appears, grows as an epiphyte, or on 
the soil in the midst of mosses and selaginellas. 
Its slender reddish-brown rhizomes are creep¬ 
ing, and at the node from which the leaves 
spring the erect flower-stalks are also developed, 
being thrown well up above the leaves. It is 
found naturally in a very rainy district, in a 
warm soil, and its inflorescence is of long dura¬ 
tion. The largest spathe measured by M. 
though the spadix bore ripe fruits, the colour 
of the spathe was still brilliant. It is an¬ 
nounced that M. Linden will send out A. 
Andreanum in the ensuing autumn, when, no 
doubt, it will be much sought after by culti¬ 
vators. 
Within the last few months a considerable 
number of plants collected and brought over 
by Mr. F. C. Lehmann, and said to be in 
H 
