Plate XIV. 



CYMBIDIUM ELEGANS. 



Cymbklium clcgnns. LindL in ff' m altich. Cat. wo. 7354, Genera el Species Orch* 163. 





A native of Nepal, whore it was discovered by l>r. Wnllich in 1831. The accompanying figure 

 has been copied from a drawing in tin* povsession of tin Honourable Court of Directors of the E**1 

 India Company, corrected from dried specimens 



Tlii* it* much the finest of the Indian Cymbidia, a* is evident from the figure. At pre* nl 

 nothing is known of it* history or structure beyond what is here represented. 



The LEAVES are from one and a half to two feel long* and not more ilinn three-eighth* or half an 

 inch wide, acuininnte and very obliquely einarginate at tin* point ; in texture thev are as rtoul 

 a* a European Typha. and when dry, have about three principal veins on each side of the mid-rib ; 

 at the base they eomhine into a broad, fleshy sort of bulb. The tiC.U'ti u rises from near the lM*c ol 

 the leave*, is about eighteen inches long* and so loaded willi flower* for half its length, that it hangs 

 down in a pcudulou* manner ; below the flower* it is loosely covered tvilh long, inflated, acuminate, 

 imbricated scab*, which abruptly change into small, narrow, SCflb>likc brftCt& Til© RACEME i* from 

 six to ten or eleven inches long, nodding, cylindrical, very compactly covered with pale salmon-colnim d 

 flower** each rather more than one inch am) a half long, ami greenish before they C3CBMd. The 

 &EPAL8 and petal* form a kind of inverted cone, so little do they open ; they art* linear-oblong, 

 HCUte, mid of the satin- figure, hut the petals are the shorter and narrower. The UP i* parallel 

 with the column, obovaie, straight* wedge-shaped at the base, divided at the point into three acute 

 lobes, of which the middle one is the hroadest and longest ; it is of the same colour as thr tepalf, but 

 is a little spotted with red. Along its centre there run* a doable elevated line {fix. I.) which i> 

 separated near the base into two threading lamella*. The COLUMN is very long, etavale, half-terete, 

 with a convex plain anther, a Utlh* prolonged in front, (fig, 2.) The poi.i.v.n* masses are two, 

 hi :i "Ji.ped, furrowed out at the hack, and planted separately upon a transversely oval gland. In 

 this respect the present species differs somewhat frmn other Into Cymbidia ; but not sulheienrly 

 to deserve being made into u distinet genus. 



