CALANTHE PLANTAGINEA.
C. plantaginea. Genera Sf Species o f Orchidaceous plants, p. 250.
The species of Calanthe are so very beautiful, and their cultivation so easy, as to render it quite a
subject of regret that there should not be more of them in our gardens. Of at least twenty-two
species, inhabiting various parts of tropical Asia, not more than five or six have been seen alive in
this country, and these are not the handsomest.
That which forms the subject of the present notice was originally discovered by Dr. Wallich,
whose manuscript notes are before me, and from one of whose drawings the accompanying plate
has been prepared, by the permission of .the Honourable i jourt of Directors of the East India
Company.
It was found common about the roots of trees in various mountain places in the valley of
Nipal, and in the forest on the summit of Mount Chandaghery, where it was beginning to flower
in the month of February. The following is translated from Dr. Wallich’s Latin description of the
plant.
The b o o t s are thick, white, and clustered, smooth when old, but originally covered with dense
white hairs. The s t e m is a creeping rhizoma, with round knobs, whence the leaves are produced.
The l e a v e s are ovate, acute at each end, from six to eight inches long, wavy, smooth, shining on the
upper side, plaited, with five principal and several smaller veins, which project on the under side of
the leaf; their s t a l k is about six inches long, deeply channelled, angular, gradually widening
upwards. The s c a p e springs from the outside of the leaves, and is from a foot to a foot and a half
high, taper, often tinged with purple; at the base it is enclosed in three or four sheathing scales,
each from two to three inches long, striated, angular, and obliquely acute at the point; together
these scales form a tube about three times wider than the scape. The f l o w e r s are arranged in an
oblong terminal raceme, from six to eight inches in length, and closely covered with rather large,
pale purple, fragrant flowers, placed upon p e d ic e l s about half an inch long, and covered with short
down like all the external parts of the flowers. The b r a c t s are linear-lanceolate, about four lines
long, downy, and nearly white. The p e r ia n t h is spread open, and pale violet; the s e p a l s are
lanceolate, acute, and about five-eighths of an inch long, those at the base of the labellum having
one of their edges more convex than the other; the p e t a l s are linear, rather broadest in the middle,
slightly falcate and reflexed. The l i p is naked, three-parted, with cuneate-obovate segments, of
which those at the side are more obtuse than that in the middle, which is apiculate; at the base it
is a little contracted, has three tubercles, and then becomes connate with the column, for the whole
length of the latter; at this part it is compressed, has some reflexed hairs inside, and at the base
is prolonged into a slender s p u r , which is notched at the end, pendulous, and as long or longer
than the pedicel.
The fragrance of the flowers of this species is the more remarkable, because those which we
have in cultivation, or of which there is any particular account, are scentless.
The figure at the bottom of the plate represents a lip, with the column to which it adheres, the
spur and the ovary, a little magnified.