Plate II. 



BURLINGTON1A VENUSTA 



Iturlhigtonia vcnuslo, Hutmtiml Register under plate 1927. 



This lovely dower is at present only known from a drawing made in Bra?.! I by Mow*. J, TIl 

 Dcseourtifo, and forming pan of a manuscript description, with figure*, of Orchidaceous plants now 

 the property of M. lo Baron Benjamin Dcleasort. As I have the permission of their liberal 

 propria tor to publish such as are mo»t remarkable iti this collection, I Anil have frequent occasion 

 to iiva I myself of its materials, in illustration of the present work. 



There h no description of Btirltngtonia venusta among M. Dcsoourtilzfe manuscripts, which 

 terminate al tbo very plate which precedes this ; nothing therefore is known of its habit*, or of the 

 part of Brazil in which it WW found. It is, however. *o much like another plant, with a somewhat 

 different aspect, of which a manuscript account occurs in the same work, under the title of 

 11 Rpidcndrc panduriformc," and which I have formerly distinguished as Buriingtonia fragrant*, 

 because of its haves being more obtuse, its raceme* of (lower* erect not pendulous its blossoms 

 always half closed with the Ubcllum standing at the back, and the little ears at the end of the 

 column almost obliterated, that an account of the one. these differences being kept in mind, will 

 nearly answer for the other. 



M. Dcscourtilz figures and describes Burlingtonia fragnms to the following effect Tin* 

 hoots are Ion-, (brad-like, white, contorted, surmounted by dry scales out of which spring the 

 rsEUDo-ni i.ns, which are fusiform, much compressed, and each terminated by a lanceolate. Btulklcss 

 leaf; the latter is bright shining green, vcinless, thick and brittle, and rounded at the point with 

 an oblique notch. The i low i;it-sn:u is radical, taper, erect or relieved, of a greenish violet, *i"wtg, 

 ami furnished with a bract at each bend ; the flowers grow in racemes, and are always half closed. 



The *i:imls are white, lanceolate, tinged externally with reddish-lilac (rloUhlUa*) ; the double one 

 U undivided at (he point, shorter than (lie lip, thicker than the upper sepal, and having at the. 

 Iwm- a triangular cavity into which the spar of the lip is inserted. The PfiTALS are broader, as white 

 as snow, and parallel with the column. Tin* Lie is larger than the other parts of the flower, narrow, 

 and prolonged into a short spur at tin* base, widened upwards, broad, (ringed, and heart- 

 shaped ot the upper end. gauffered as it were about the edges ; its colour is pure white, hut ai the 

 narrow part in the centre there is a broad golden-yellow spot which is downy, ami terminated in 

 front by three points, and has at the margin two salient lines, within which arc inserted the boms 



of the column. The COLUMN i* taper, club-shaped upwards, prolonged on each side of I lie 

 stigma into a short lint horn, white, about half as long as the Up, with two short purple conical ears 

 on a level with the apex of the anther. The amim:u >h>pes backwards upon the end of (he column. 

 i* hemispherical, and divided internally into two cells by a perpendicular partition; at the apex 

 it is dilated and hollowed oul to secure an oval yellowish gland, to which adheres a curved strap 

 having (wo deep ydlow pollen masses. 



This beautiful species is remarkable for the delicious odour which its dowers exhale of Jonquil, 

 or of some Water-lily. It grows among die topmost brandies of the Ccdreln, in the districts of 

 Morro-Qu&nado and Macah6, and near the city of Bom Jesus de Banana!, blew ing in October 



