PL. 19. ANGULOA RUCKERII SANGUINEA.
ANGULOA RUCKERII SANGUINEA.
[[Plate 19].]
Native of Colombia.
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs large, ovate-oblong, four to six inches high, furrowed when mature. Leaves several, growing from the apex of the younger pseudobulbs, broadly lanceolate, acute, two to two and a half feet long and four to six inches broad, strongly ribbed and plaited. Flower-scapes radical, one-flowered, shorter than the leaves, clothed below with imbricated sheathing bracts. Flowers large, fleshy, nearly erect; sepals roundish with an apiculus, strongly convex, conniving into a semi-globular shape, which with their nearly erect position gives them a somewhat tulip-like appearance, creamy yellow outside, and of a deep sanguineous red on the inner surface; petals similar in form and colour to the sepals; lip clawed, subconvolute, three-lobed, the lateral lobes broadish and obtuse, the middle portion hairy, funnel-shaped and two-lipped, the front lobe tridentate, and with the middle part crimson blotched and barred with white. Column entire, creamy white, spotted with crimson.
Anguloa Ruckerii sanguinea, Lindley in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1852, 271; Hooker, Botanical Magazine, t. 5384; Williams’ Orchid Growers’ Manual, ed. iv., 90; ed. v., 92.
The subject of our present illustration is an exceedingly rare plant, and is met with in only a few collections. In its habit of growth and general appearance it resembles the type Anguloa Ruckerii, but it is very distinct in colour, and is altogether a more desirable plant, the flowers being of a much richer colour—a deep rich blood-red spotted with a darker tint of the same—whereas in the original A. Ruckerii they are of a fine orange colour spotted with dark brown.
The growth of this plant is very majestic, producing as it does bulbs four to six inches high, and leaves from eighteen to thirty inches long, by four to six inches broad. The flowers, which proceed from the base of the pseudobulb, are erect, tulip-shaped, and of great substance and size, lasting as long as four weeks in perfection. A. Ruckerii sanguinea is a very suitable plant for exhibition purposes on account of the distinct appearance produced by its massive flowers when intermixed with other Orchids.
The temperature best suited for this plant is that of the cool Orchid-house. We have found it succeed well in pots in a compost of good fibrous peat, with plenty of drainage. It requires a good season of rest, during which period the plant should be kept rather dry until it begins to show renewed signs of growth, when the supply of water may be increased. It is propagated by division of the pseudobulbs just before they start into growth. We are indebted for the opportunity of figuring this plant to Dr. Boddaert, of Ghent, Belgium, in whose collection it flowered last July.
A fine figure of the original Anguloa Ruckerii will be found in Warner’s Select Orchidaceous Plants, 2nd series, t. 10; and it is also figured in the Botanical Register, 1846, t. 41; and in Moore’s Illustrations of Orchidaceous Plants, art. Auguloa, plate 3.