67 
GOVENIA fasciata. 
Linden’s Govenia. 
GYNANDRIA MONANDRITA. 
Nat. ord. ORCHIDACEÆ. $ VANDEÆ—MaAxILLARIDX. 
GOVENIA. Bot. Reg. vol. 21. fol. 1795. 
G. fasciata (Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1843. misc. 107) ; foliis latis ovalibus acutis, 
spicá laxá, bracteis ovario æqualibus abrupté acutis, sepalis angustis 
acutis, petalis latioribus, labello oblongo subquadrato apiculato intus 
leevi, antheræ mucrone inflexo. 
Among the genera of Orchids there is not one whose 
species are so difficult to distinguish as those of Govenia; 
a most natural group, with most of its members extremely 
similar in habit. In a dried state they are so much alike, or 
they vary so much in the appearance of their flowers, in con- 
sequence of the manner in which they shrink, that it is hardly 
possible to recognise them. 
'That which is here figured was named in this work two 
years since, and was supposed to be Mexican. We now, 
however, find it among Mr. Linden's Merida plants, under 
two numbers, 644 and 654. Both were found by that most 
industrious collector in Venezuela, in damp forests, at the 
height of 5000 feet above the sea, and are distinguished from 
each other in his memoranda by the flowers of one having the 
markings more broken into specks and spots than the other. 
Both were gathered in July, 1842. 
It is one of the prettiest of the genus, having clear yellow 
flowers, whose sepals and petals are beautifully marked by 
fne broken bands of crimson. The long bracts, thin narrow 
spike of flowers, and oblong, not ovate, lip, are the marks by 
which it is best recognized. The leaves are about a foot long 
and three inches wide. 
