Plate IV. 



CYMBIDIUM GIGANTEUM, 



Cymbidium gignnteum* JFatliclfs Catalogue^ uo. 7355- Gen* et $p. Orcft, p. 163- 



THIS i* the most striking of all the plants belonging 10 the true genus Cymlmlium. an<I was 

 well named "the gigantic" when compared with other known specie*. It is a native of Nepal, 

 and Kcmaon. where it wa* discovered by Dr. U'allich in the year 1821. The accompanying plnte 

 ha* been prepared after a drawing made at the time of its discovery, and liberally placed ar my 

 disposal for publication by the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company. The 

 plant itself may tw soon expected in our gardens*, if indeed it does not already exist there. 



It will be observed that the spike of flowers is erect in the drawing, and ir appears from the 

 dried specimens distributed by the East India Company (hat this is the natural position. Other- 

 wise, as the lip stands above the column, it might bare been supposed thai the flowers were pendulous. 

 as in Cymbidium atoifolium and others. 



LEAVES upwards of two feet long. 7-ncrved, narrow, strap-shaped, thick and tough, dilated at 

 the base, where they are pale, strongly ribbed, and closely imbricated in a distichous manner : these 

 base* remain permanently after (he leaves have dropped off them, and form a hard flattened 

 crown to the simple, creeping roots of the plant ; eventually they split into fragments, and become 

 coarse ragged membranes. Scape erect, closely covered at the base with loose imbricated striated 

 scales, changing into a spike about a fool long. Bracts short, ovate, acute scales. Ovaries an 

 tin li and half long. Flowers rather closed, dull purple, tessellated, very large for the genus. 

 SEPALS Oblong, acute, erect, un inch and half long, many veined, nearly equal; the two lateral 

 Uppermost. Petals linear-lanceolate, acute, spreading, rather shorter than the sepal*. Ln- oblong. 

 tapering at the base, where it adheres to the column, complicated, 3-lobcd : the lateral lobes entire, 

 flat, narrow, the intermediate crisp, ciliated : the disk with two converging ciliated lamella*, ending 

 in a line of hairs that reach to the point of the Up. and bordered by two distant hairy lines on each 

 side. Column elavale. edged, smooth, with a terminal anther, which adheres firmly to the back 

 and hardly opens in front 



