William Ellis

“ At the summit of each pseudo bulb arises a single elliptical or lance-shaped leaf, six or seven inches long, of a reddish-brown colour, marbled with spots of green. From the base of each bulb springs a small leafless articulated or jointed stalk, stiff, and frequently four feet long, with small deciduous scales attached to the joints of the stalk. At the end of each stalk a small green peduncle supports a single flower bearing a singular and striking resemblance to a butterfly on the wing, not only in general outline, but in some of the details, both of form and colour. ”

“ THE LACE-LEAF PLANT AT KEW.
Few of the residents in London able to command occasionally a leisure hour for recreation and enjoyment are strangers to the National Garden at Kew, and few from the provinces make a visit of any duration to London without devoting at least one day to this most agreeable place of public resort; while to many intelligent and scientific foreigners it constitutes one of the attractions by which they are drawn to our shores. ”

“ Each stalk produces but one terminal flower at a time, but instead of decaying when the flower has withered and fallen, as occurs in most other orchids, the stalk retains its vitality, a now terminal bud forms and develops into another flower, and by the continuance of this process each stalk produces a number of flowers in succession. On one of the stalks of a large plant growing on a block of wood, fourteen apparent articulations or projections, covered by as many deciduous scales, seemed to indicate the number of flowers this single stalk had borne. ”

“ The relations subsisting between the structure of plants and peculiar conditions of temperature and climate have given to different parts of the world a specific and peculiar vegetation. Formerly, the plants peculiar to each region were known to few beyond the inhabitants of the countries in which they grew; but the pursuits of commerce and science have, in recent years, made the inhabitants of Europe acquainted with the production of all other countries ”

“ The centre of the flower seems a mimicry of the body of the insect, the sepals, long, narrow, and slightly curved, represent in a wonderful manner in shape and position the antennæ of the butterfly, while the petals represent the wings, and the labellum or lip the expanded body of the insect. ”

“ Hence a healthy pitcher-plant is considered useful in a house containing orchids or other tender plants, as cockroaches and such destructive insects are not unfrequently found dead in the pitchers, to which they have been attracted by the water, or by a sugary secretion said to be found in the inside of some species ”

“ The terrestrial orchid is a remarkable plant, from Panama, whence it was brought to England in 1826. It is a bulbous-looking plant. The smooth pseudo bulbs growing above the surface of the ground, are oval in shape, of a bright green colour, and covered with deciduous scales, each bulb being five or six inches in length, and three inches in diameter. From the point or summit of the pseudo bulbs rise three or more leaves, lance-shaped and ribbed, four or five feet in length, and five or six inches wide. ”

“ Science teaches us that in the order in which the world we inhabit was furnished, the vegetable preceded the animal occupants; and if a metamorphosis in nature, such as that adverted to, could be allowed, and the forms of animal life appeared first in the vegetable world, very intelligible vestiges of creation might be presented, and the development theory might be set forth as a more simple and natural process than it has hitherto appeared. ”

“ The inner edge of the annulus of the pitcher is fringed with stiff hairs growing in an oblique, descending direction, along which insects easily pass to the water, but through which few of them seem able to make their way back ”

“ Nor is it less curious to notice that these slender and fragile structures, apparently not more substantial than gossamer, and flexile as a feather, still possess a tenacity and wiriness which allows the delicate leaf to be raised by the hand to the surface of the water without injury.” Sir William J. Hooker remarks, in the course of his account of the plant, “We shall be surprised if all who are interested in horticulture do not possess themselves of so curious and beautiful an object. ”

“ Though orchids are not confined to countries lying within the tropics, these realms of exuberant vegetation are their genial home. Their organisation is peculiar and distinct among other orders of plants. A few live on the ground, but the greater proportion of them are epiphytes, and grow on the trunks or branches of trees, often on the topmost boughs, and are nourished entirely by the atmosphere. ”

“ The long slender stems are generally trained round a number of rods, or a wire frame. They grow best in a very moist atmosphere, seldom lower than 60°, having the pots embedded in moss, heated by artificial means to a somewhat higher temperature than the atmosphere. The roots are fibrous, and the stalk, which is smaller than an ordinary quill, is during the first year green, but afterwards turns brown, and is sometimes more than half an inch in diameter. ”

“ Singular as is the structure, and elaborate as appears the organisation, of these slight delicately-formed pitchers, and striking as is their resemblance in structure and in form to some of the most useful productions of human skill, another circumstance, in some respects yet more remarkable, remains to be noticed. ”

“ This pleasure is every year shared by increasing numbers, and few signs of social progress are more gratifying than the addition of one or both these latter sources of recreation and instruction to nearly all except the lowest class of rural or suburban dwellings. ”

“ The conditions under which the culture of the Ouvirandra fenestralis has been pursued at Kew have been so favourable, and its treatment so successful, that it has grown remarkably well, attaining a size and exhibiting a freshness and vigour equal to any attained in its native streams. ”

“ The cultivation of the plant has not hitherto been generally successful in England, owing, apparently, to attempts to grow it in water kept at too low a temperature, as it seems to thrive best in water kept at about 80°. ”

“ From the base of the bulb a pale green, almost white, articulated flower-spike shoots up along the side of the bulb, and rises to the height of four or five feet, the upper portion forming a raceme of pure white waxy flowers, sometimes as many as twenty in number. ”

“ The plant at the Regent’s Park has been sent back to Mr. Ellis for the recovery of its health, and is understood to be promising well.
Sir W. J. Hooker published a scientific description of this remarkable plant in the London Botanical Journal for January, 1856. In the description there given, after noticing the curious fork-like inflorescence, it is stated that the leaf “seems like a living fibrous skeleton rather than a perfect leaf. ”

“ The lid then separates from the rim, excepting at the upper and outer side, where it remains more or less raised, and united as by a hinge to the pitcher. This pitcher, being attached at its base to the slender, tendril-like stalk, hangs suspended six inches or a foot from the point of the leaf with which it is connected. Forty or more pitchers sometimes hang around a single plant. In some species this order of successive development is not followed. In the early growth of some seedling plants examined by Dr. ”