85 



m 



flowered 



The finest specimens I have 



seen were sent by Mr. Bateman to Messrs. Loddiges. Th 

 stems are erect, about six inches high, not very unlike a 

 L small state of Dendrobium nohile, and are covered by a pro- 



fusion of nodding racemes of rather small green and white 

 flowers. 



157. CCELOGYNE Wallichiana. 



Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. 43. 



t ^ 



At last a plant of the beautiful division of Coelogyne, 

 called Pleione by Professor Don, has appeared in the collec- 

 tion at Chatsworth, whither it had been brought by Mr. John 

 Gibson. It has large, handsome, scentless, deep rose- 

 coloured flowers, growing close to the ground, from within 

 some hard tuberculated sheaths, proceeding from the base 

 of depressed flask-shaped green and purple speckled pseudo- 

 bulbs. In its native country this and allied species cover 

 the ground with a pavement of their curious stems, which 

 wither up in the dry season, but change into a brilliant 

 carpet of rosy flowers upon the approach of rain. A figure 

 is prepared for this work. 



158. MEDINILLA erythrophylfa. 



M. (Sarcoplacuntia ?) ery throphylla ; ramulis teretibus laevibus, foliis oppositis 

 breviter petiolatis lanceolatis acuminatis basi acutis tnplinerviis, cymis axil- 

 laribus, floribus octandris, antheris mutlcis, calyce truncato. 



Among the plants brought from India to Chatsworth by 

 Mr. John Gibson was a plant called Melastoma erythrophjllai 

 which, upon flowering, proved to belong to the beautiful 

 genus Medinilla, of which Dr. Blume has described twenty- 

 one species in his observations upon Melastomaceae in the 

 Botanische Zdtung. It appears to be a small shrub ; the 

 branches are round, even, without any trace of inequalities ,* 

 the leaves are opposite in pairs, fleshy, lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, quite acute at the base, triple-nerved, and entirely 

 smooth on both sides ; when young they are deep red, when 

 old they are^ bright green. The flowers are bright rose 

 colour, three-quarters of an inch long, and arranged in 

 axillary cymes. The species is apparently very near M. rubi- 



