There certainly is not a more singular genus than this 
in the whole vegetable kingdom, nor one whose flowers are 
less like flowers to the eye of the ordinary observer. The 
sepals are of the most delicate texture; when young they 
spread equally round the centre, but after a few hours they 
collapse, and assume the appearance of a bat's wing half 
closed. The lip is furnished near its base with a yellow 
cup, over which hang two horns constantly distilling water 
into it, and in such abundance as to fill it several times; 
this cup communicates by a narrow channel formed of the 
inflated margin of the lip, with the upper end of the latter, 
and this also is a capacious vessel very much like an old 
helmet, into which the honey that the cup cannot contain 
may run over. ` 
C. maculata differs from C. speciosa, not only in the colour 
of the flowers and the greater breadth of its leaves, but also 
in its lateral sepals being almost exactly half-cordate, without 
any bend in the middle, and in the horns of the base of its 
lip being much longer; the middle lobe of its lip too is 
less distinctly trifid. 
C. macrantha, which has lately flowered at Mr. Knight’s, 
surpasses both the others in the richness and magnitude of its 
flower, and is decidedly distinguished by the mesochilium 
being irregularly plaited and ridged. 
Our drawing of this species was made from a specimen 
communicated by the Horticultural Society in July 1833. 
