treatment, and with me it succeeds perfectly in the Mexican 

 house. Patience however will have to be exercised, for — 

 even in Guatemala — it takes nearly seven years to grow a 

 really fine plant ; but this when once obtained will remain 

 a sort of heirloom for generations. The roots being very 

 large and fleshy, it requires abundant pot-room, the pots 

 being filled with a mixture of broken potsherds, sphagnum, 

 and fibrous peat. 



Mr. Skinner once showed me a clever model of this plant 

 executed in coloured paper, and which he obtained from the 

 nuns of some Guatemala convent, in whose garden it was 

 cultivated for the sake of its flowers. The white background 

 of these, contrasted with the rich spotting on the inner side, 

 does, indeed, produce a very striking effect, and no doubt 

 attracted the attention of the sisterhood. This model showed 

 a compound raceme a foot or more long, which I expect will 

 be at least equalled by those of the plant at Oulton when it 

 flowers again. 



Desck. A robust terrestrial plant, throwing out numerous 

 fleshy roots, and forming tufts of stout leafy stems, which are 

 from half an inch to an inch thick, and from four to six feet 

 high. Leaves from six to ten inches long, glossy, dark green 

 and sharp- pointed. From the extremity of the stem there 

 issues forth a nodding, many-flowered (sometimes, though 

 rarely, compound) raceme, protected by numerous blunt, 

 sheathing, equitant, pale green spathes. Flowers fleshy, on 

 white pedicels three times as long as themselves. Sepals 

 oblong, obtuse, broader than the linear petals, both being 

 white at the back, and of a pale yellow, mottled with rich 

 reddish brown inside. Lip divided into three fleshy lobes, 

 of which those at the sides are rounded and entire, while 

 that in the centre is wedge-shaped and deeply cleft into two 

 portions, which are divergent and rounded ; its colour lfl 

 a creamy white, with rosy tints. Column somewhat curved 

 and club-shaped, about the same length as the lip. — J- -#• 



Fig. 1. Front view of lip and column, slightly magnified. 2. Dimi- 

 nished outline of the plant. 



