■^^M 



i^m 



■M 



Pl-ATK XXXVII. 



RENANTHERA COCCINEA 



]A 



. 



n 



A splendid stove epiphyte, of the Vandcon* group of Orchids, remnrkablc (or its root-bearing tnd distichouslyJcary 

 stems, and its panicle* of rich hlood-red flowers, of a lawny orange on the outer surface The Mem is nearly 

 as thick as ones little finger, tall and climbing, adhering by it* thick whitish fleshy mots to any supporting 

 body. The leaves an? loratc or linear-oblong, numerous, oblique and emargitiatcat the ipox, and having a 

 keeled midrib. The flowers grow in [wmiclcs which issue from the sides of the stem amongst the leaves— not 

 from their axils, the te&pe supporting it being glabrous, and the panicle* themselves more or less branched, and 

 bearing many large showy flowers. The lateral sepals arc broader than the dorsal one, clawed, undulate and 

 bluntly lance-shaped, of a rather deep but dull orange-red, blotched with maroon-crimson: the upper sepal, 

 n it Ji the potals, is narrower, of a liiiear-Mpatliiilutc form, scarlet marked with yellow bands ; while the lip, which 

 h much smaller and sessile, has n conical crimson saccate spur near the ba*e, the anterior portion being three- 

 lobed, wiih the lateral lobes truncate, yellow, streaked with scarlet, and the middle lobe lingniform aud 

 reflcxed, scarier, with i patch of yellow at the base. The column h scmiterete, not winged, orangored, 

 marked with yellow, with sub-hemispherical red anthers, and two sub-globose pollen masses, which are uw>- 

 lobed behind, 



RltfAlfffftftA OOConnu, Ijourtiro, F/ora Cochinchlnensis* ». Gil \ /Jndby % JfofawW ti&jitfer* t- 1131; Hooter* 

 Botanical Magazine tt. 2»97~29!>S: Paxton % $ Mn^nim of Botany, iv. 48; AefotattoA, in Ilhlptri Amat* 

 Botamtxs Syxttmatieo?, vi.87f». 



This plant is now an old inhabitant of our Orchid-houses having been introduced lo this country about 

 1S10. It is familiarly known amongst orchid growers as the Chinese Air-plunt, which name has led 

 many amateurs to regard it as a native of the Celestial Empire, instead of which it b really indigenous to 

 Cocliiu China, a country which any enterprising collector would find it worth his while to explore, as it 

 contains many fine plants which would prove extremely ornamental in our European hothouses. The 

 Itenaiithera is t however, no doubt cultivated by the Chinese, as Sir W. Hooker mentions having himself 

 received line specimens from Canton ; and adds that a ray faithful representative of the plant occurs amongst 

 a set of Chinese drawings received from another correspondent at the same place. In this country it was 

 first flowered at Clarcmont* in 1827, 



Rcnantkeru is a genus very nearly allied to Va*da 9 its chief distinction consisting in its having a 

 jointed lip, with the spur in the middle, instead of the lip l>cing adherent with a saccate base. There is 

 also greater inequality in the size of the sepals and petals. 



The species now under consideration is n plant of rapid growth, and, it must be confessed, of a 

 somewhat straggling habit; but as it produces great quantities of aerial roots from its stems, it may be cut 

 down without the slightest injury whenever it becomes either too tall or unsightly from the loss of its bottom 

 leaves, and thus treated it may be easily kept within the limits of even a small house. The stem is terete. 

 The leaves are arranged in a distichous or two-ranked manner, ami arc about five inches in length by an 

 inch in breadth, linear-oblong, emarginate at the apex, and coriaceous in texture. The flower-spike, which 

 is produced from amongst the leaves, becomes a much-branched and many-flowered j>nniclc. The individual 

 flowers measure upwards of two inches in diameter; the dorsal sepal and the petals arc somewhat narrow, 

 with a ground colour of deep red, slightly mottled with pale orange ; the lower sepals are broader than the 

 petals, and spatludate, deep scarlet ; the lip is small, the side lobes and front of its middle lobe deep crimson, 

 and lite bnsal portion of the middle lobe white. The specimen which Mr. Kitch has here so faithfully repre- 



