to 20. The bracts are, for the size of the flowers, rather large, 
broad, ovate, a little stem-clasping, very pale green, and 
stained with crimson at the points. The three sepals are 
narrow and taper to a point, pale green externally, dull cho- 
colate brown in the inside (fig. 2. a. a. a.). The petals 
are minute, slender-pointed scales, shorter than the co- 
lumn, and not discoverable without disturbing the sepals. 
The colamn is dwarf, and terminated in part by two long 
curved horns (fig. 1. a. a., and fig. 2. c.). The anther is a 
little round lid, beautifully studded with crystalline points 
(fig. L). The lip ( fig. 2. b.) is one of the most extraordi- 
nary organs known even among Orchidaceous plants; it is 
a long, narrow, flexuose, sharp-pointed body, closely covered 
with a yellow felt; just within its point there is a deep purple 
beard of exceedingly fine compact hairs; on the under side, 
at a little distance from the point of the lip, is another such 
beard; and besides these there is, at the end of the lip, a 
brush consisting of very long, purple threads, so excessively 
delicate, that the slightest disturbance of the air sets them in 
motion, when they wave gently to and fro, like a tuft of 
threads cut from a spider's web: of the last mentioned hairs 
some are of the same thickness throughout, others terminate 
in an oblong club, so that when the hairs are waving in 
the air, and I do not know that they ever are at rest, a part 
float along gracefully and slowly, while the others are im- 
pelled by the weight of their glandular extremities to a 
more rapid oscillation. 
Nor is this all; the lip itself, with its yellow felt, its two 
beards, and its long purple brushes, is articulated with the 
column by such a very slight joint, that to breathe upon it is 
sufficient to produce 'a rocking movement, so conspicuous 
and protracted, that one is reall tempted to believe that there 
must be something of an Messi Lus infused into this most 
unplant-like production. 
Messrs, Loddiges possess another species, with similar 
habits. 
