Plate XIX. 



CAMAROTIS PURPUREA. 



C. purpurea, lAndL Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 219. 

 Aeridcs rostrntum, HoxL Fl> tad. vol 3. 474. 



Tbil beautiful and graceful plain, a native of the forests of Sylhel, wan originally obtained by 

 Dr. Wallich in April 1819. from Dr. Carey's Garden at Scrampore, whin a drawing was made by 

 (In* artists employed in the Botanic Garden. Calcutta, from which the principal part of the materials 

 for the accompanying figure have been taken, by permission of the Honourable Court of Director* 

 of the East India Company. 



It has not yet been introduced into European cultivation. Dr. Wnllich. whose manuscript 

 account lies before me, describes it a* a climbing plant, with fragrant flower* : it must, therefore, \*< 

 particularly well worth inquiring for in India. 



The following description is partly translated from Dr. Wnllich 1 * papers, hut is altered in n y 



raipccta after the examination of dried specimens. 



Leave* linear, about three Inches long, and four or fire lines broad, coriaceous, Spreading, and 

 slightly curved, truncated, usually obliquely, ai the point with two, three, or four domiciliation^ at 

 the hase slightly sheathing the stem, which i* two-edged. Racemes opposite the leaves, straggling, 

 ascending, sometimes twice as long as the leaves, sometimes much shorter. Flowbh* purple, spread 

 open. Pedicels half an inch long, including the ovary. Sepals pale purple, oval, obtuse, scarcely 

 half an inch long ; the lateral united to the back of the lip, except at the point, where they diverge ; 

 they form together a single, wedge-shaped, twodobed body. Petals of the same shape a* the 

 doisal sepal, but darker purple near the upper end. The lip is narrow, channelled at it* base, 

 united at the back for more than half the length to the lateral sepals, furnished at the apex with a 

 hollow conical chamWrhnvm^ 



process proceeds, and lies down over the orifice ; in all respects of a deeper purple than the other 

 segments of the perianth ; otherwise the lip may be described as thrcc-lobed, with the lateral 

 lobes united by their faces except near the point, which is inflated and extended into u hollow 

 obconicnl chamber, over the aperture into which the intermediate subulate lobe is inflected. TTie 

 Coluuh is very short, round, with the rostellum prolonged into a conical subulate l>eak, emtnrinatQ 

 at the apex, and many times longer than the column. ANriir.ii placed upon the back of this beak, in 

 such a way that while it terminates the column it i* almost inverted in position by the ascending 

 direction of the beak, prolonged at the point into a thin, narrow, sharp appendage, not quite 

 two-ecllcd. Pollen-masses two, globose, attached to the end of a long subulate caudicula, which 

 adheres to a dilated peltate gland. 



The extremely curious structure of the lip. which is distinctly chambered at the point. U»ne 

 of the principal circumstances by which this genus is distinguished among its allies. Dr. Roxburgh 

 says, thai Itelbrc expansion the heak of the column is lodged in thin cavity of the lip. 



Fig, 2. of the dissections, represents the chamber, as the lip is viewed from above ; fig. 3. ahem 

 it more distinctly, in consequence of the lip having been cut through vertically ; fig. L t* n haok 

 view of the whole flower, representing the adhesion of the lip and the lateral sepals to each other * 

 fig. 4, shews the column, with the long beak-like rostellum and pollen-mane*, ftc, the anther baring 

 dropped off. In this figure the gland is erroneously represented as cmarginute instead of peltate. 



W Boi. Garden, 





