322 1MB. G. BEXTHAM ON OKCHIDEJB. 



Columbian and Peruvian species. The passage from the nearly 

 globular perianth of AnguJoa to the expanded one of Ly caste 

 appears to be gradual through the various forms referred to 

 Colas, judging at least from the several published figures. Chon- 

 drorhyncha, Lindl., one or two Columbian species, appears from 

 Lindley's herbarium and notes to be nearer to Zyyopetalum than 

 to Stenia, next to which Reichenbach would place it ; but I have not 

 had the means of examining any flower myself. Lastly, Gongora, 

 Ruiz and Pav., of which about twenty species have been pub- 

 lished, connects the subtribe with that of Stanhopiese ; and I 

 quite concur with Reichenbach in including in it Acropera, Lindl. 

 In the cultivated specimens of this plant Darwin found the stigma 

 always imperfect, and suggested the possibility that it might 

 be the male form of some species, of which the female might be 

 different enough to have been placed in some other genus. But 

 Bourgeois' Mexican specimens, with perfectly organized stigmas 

 and well-ripened capsules, are in other respects perfectly similar 

 to the cultivated ones. 



Paradisantliiis,Kegelia, Cceliopsis, and Sievekingia, Reichb. f.,are 

 all monotypic genera unknown to me, and not sufficiently charac- 

 terized to judge of their immediate affinities ; but they all appear 

 to belong to the subtribe Cyrtopodiea?, and are very probably 

 referrible to some of the above-mentioned genera. 



Subtribe 4. SiANiiopiEiE. — This subtribe, corresponding nearly 

 to Reichenbach's group of Eborilingues, consists of ten tropical- 

 American genera, distributed by Lindley in his Catasetidaa and 

 Maxillaridea?. They form a natural group, much better repre- 

 sented in our plant-houses than in herbaria, and readily recog- 

 nized, though very difficult to characterize. The habit is gene- 

 rally that of the preceding tribes, all epiphytes with pseudo- 

 bulbs bearing one or very few usually large leaves, either plicate 

 or prominently ribbed. The leafless scapes bear a loose raceme 

 of few usually large flowers, often very irregular in their shapes. 

 The whole perianth, or, at least, the labellum, is very fleshy ; 

 and this is the main character relied upon for the distinction 

 of the subtribe. There is no mentum or spur. The pollinarium 

 has generally a well-developed stipes, and frequently a large 

 thick gland. The nine genera, Coryanthes, Hook., Stanhopea, 

 Frost, Soulhtia, Brongn., Peristera, Hook., Acineta, Lindl., Cata- 

 setum, A. Rich., Mormodes, Lindl., Cycnoches, Lindl., and Poly- 

 cycnis, Reichb. f., have all been well illustrated in horticultural 



