Tas. 6161. 
CYRTOPERA SANGUINEA. 
Native of the Sikkim Himalaya. 
e 
Nat. Ord. Orcuiprm.—Tribe VANDER. 
Genus Crrrorera, (Lindl. Gen. § Sp. Orchid., p. 189). 
Cy RTOPERA sanguinea ; tubere crasso oblongo annulato, scapo infra medium 
vaginato superne bracteato bracteis elongato-subulatis floralibus ovario 
brevioribus v. longioribus, sepalis ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis, petalis 
brevioribus oblongis apice obtuse 3-crenulatis brunneis  v. fusco- 
sanguineis, labello 8-lobo pallide roseo, lobis lateralibus brevibus 
obtusis incurvis, intermedio orbiculato recurvo basi 3-carinato, carinis 
in nervos papillosos ramosos desinentibus, calcare brevi conico vires- 
cente, anthera apice producta truncata. 
CyrTOPERA sanguinea, Lindl. in Journ. Linn. Soc., vol. iii. p. 32. 
\ 
The materials at my command for describing this plant are 
my own specimens collected in 1848 in Sikkim, a coloured 
sketch of a flower made from the same by myself, a 
coloured drawing of the whole plant made by Judge Cath- 
cart’s artists in Sikkim, and the flowering specimen here 
figured. These show that the plant is very variable in colour 
and robustness, though but little in other respects. The 
colour of the flower as shown in my own sketch is a dull 
reddish purple, extending over the short spur, with a rose- 
red limb to the lip; colours which induced Dr. Lindley to 
name the species sanguinea, a name hardly justified by those 
hues. Cathceart’s drawing, made by native artists (and these 
are often very faithless to nature), represents the scape as 
very stout, brownish purple, with broad sheaths and no sub- 
ulate bracts; the bracts, pedicel, ovary, and flower are of a 
uniform purple-brown colour, suffused with pink, except the 
whole lip, which is rose-coloured. This, which passed under Dr. 
Lindley’s eye when he described the species, is also marked 
by him C. sanguinea. Mr. Fitch’s drawing speaks for the cul- 
tivated plant as flowered at Kew, which agrees well with my 
dried specimen in all except the absence of the sheathes at 
the base of the scape; differs much from both the drawings 
APRIL lst, 1875, 
