with purple. The flowers are disposed in a short-branched rigid panicle, elevated 
on a stalk not quite so long as the longest leaves; it is about six or nine inches 
long, and densely covered with flowers, which sometimes assume a corymbose, 
sometimes a racemose arrangement. The flowers when expanded measure an 
inch and three-quarters from the tip of their back sepal to the point of their lip; 
they emit a delicious fragrance resembling that of the garden pink. The sepals 
are oblong, concave, obtuse, a little waved and greenish yellow at the edge, bright 
yellow in the middle, and regularly marked with broad blotches of crimson which 
run together near the base. The two petals are similar to the sepals. The lip 
is bright violet, darkest at the lower half ; at the base itis prolonged on each side 
into a triangular tooth, and in the middle of the base there are three nearly equal 
tubercles which towards the column terminate a ridge that gradually lowers and 
then disappears at the expanded portion of the lip; above the base it is narrow, 
it then expands again into a broad, thin, light purple, somewhat truncated and 
toothed extremity. The column has an oblique, rounded, ear-like appendage on 
each side, and is capped by a rich crimson anther. 
* Such was the specimen from which the annexed drawing was taken; but 
it was far inferior to one which I have Just seen (June 29, 1836), in the rich 
collection of epiphytes belonging to the Messrs. Rollinsons of Tooting. This 
pe. which I regard as the most perfect instance of successful cultivation I 
ave yet witnessed among epiphytes, had leaves eighteen inches long, and up- 
wards of thirty flowers two inches and a quarter in expansion, with all the vade 
ings of the sepals and petals of the richest chocolate brown, and of the lip of 
the deepest violet. In fragrance there was a resemblance to the spicy odour of 
that sweetest of all flowers Aerides cornutum. 
. . f In the Society's garden this plant is cultivated along with other epiphytes 
in a damp hothouse facing the north ; it is planted in a mixture of sandy peat, 
potsherds, and decayed wood; and under these circumstances it thrives very well. 
“ Mr. Lance has favoured me with the following account of the discovery 
and subsequent management of this remarkable plant in its natiye country. 
** * The first specimen of this splendid Epiphyte I discovered, was growing 
on the trunk of a large tamarind tree, in a noble avenue of those trees close to 
the Government House in Surinam. I took it home with me and planted it in a 
pot filled ‚with rotten pieces of wood and a little light earth; but though it re- 
mained alive and flowered once or twice, it did not thrive, but wasted away and 
became less. I afterwards found a great number of the plants in different parts 
of the colony; they were generally attached to the stems or branches of the 
Tamarind, the Sapodilla, or the Calabash trees, appearing to prefer those to any 
other; however, on being tied to the branches of the Orange, the Soursop, the 
Mammee, and even the Brugmansia arborea, it grew well upon them all and pro- 
duced vigorous stems with upwards of twenty blossoms on each stem. The 
scent 1s extremely fragrant, and is retained after the flower is dried, only becomin 
fainter and more of a spicy flavour than when fresh. The plant remains in 
beauty ten „or twelve days, a long period in that climate, and I found that it 
always required a shady situation and a living stem to grow upon, without which 
it would not produce its flowers in the highest perfection,’ - 
_ ** Although the Society’s sense of the importance of Mr. Lance’s endeavours 
to introduce new plants to this country has already been recognized by the 
Council having awarded him the Society's Large Silver Medal, yet I trust it will 
not be considered improper in me to indicate this in a more specific manner, by 
naming after that gentleman one of the most beautiful of the plants we owe to 
his exertions,” 
