8 
CALANTHE curculigoides. 
Yellow-spiked Calanthe. 
GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 
Nat. ord. ORCHIDACEÆ. | (Oncurps, Vegetable Kingdom, p. 173.) 
CALANTHE, supra vol. 1844, t. 37. 
C. curculigoides (Wall. Cat. no. 7340. Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch. no. 13.) ; 
folis oblongis glabris scapo crasso duplo longioribus, racemo denso 
cylindraceo glabro, bracteis membranaceis deflexis cito deciduis, labello 
hastato lobis lateralibus brevibus obtusis intermedio lanceolato cis apicem 
dilatato, calcare uncinato. 
A bright yellow Calanthe is an unexpected novelty ; and 
this species, which was previously known only from bad 
dried specimens, proves to be one of the handsomest of its 
race. The flowers have a firm waxy texture, and do not 
wither so soon as those of some species; they are much 
yellower and finer than in C. densiflora ; all their beauty fades, 
however, in drying, when the species becomes one of the least 
attractive. The specimen now figured, was the best we 
have seen in a living state: butit is nothing compared to 
what it will become. We have now before us wild specimens, 
collected by the late Mr. Griffith at Malacca, with ten inches 
of flowers, and a further part of the inflorescence is lost. It 
is not too much to say that the flowering spike of C. curculi- 
goides may be expected to be a foot long. 
The species has been found exclusively in the Straits of 
Malacca, whence Messrs. Loddiges received it. It flowered 
at Hackney, in November, 1845, and may be expected to 
require more heat than some of the sorts. 
Fig. 1. represents the lip, column, and spur; the re- 
markable hook of the latter is one of the characteristic marks 
of the species. 
