The reputed native country of C. bella is Ie St. Catherine, 
where it is said to have been discovered by M. F. Devos 
when travelling for Messrs. Verschaffelt ; but it is no doubt 
(like its congeners) a central American plant, for there is 
a specimen of it in Lindley’s Herbarium collected in 
Guatemala by Mr. Skinner, under the name of C. picta, 
Batem. MSS. with the note, that it inhabits “avery damp 
climate” (temp. 68° to 80°),” and is found ‘in thick fog on 
trees, also terrestrial.” Whether the word “ fog” is used in 
the English sense of visible moisture in the air, or in the 
Scotch one of moss, may be doubted. 
Celia bella has been long in cultivation; the drawing 
here given was made from a plant that flowered in Kew in 
December last. 
Descr. Pseudo-bulbs one and a half to two inches long, 
globose or ovoid, somewhat compressed, smooth, green. 
Leaves several, six to ten inches long, elongate ensiform, 
finely acuminate, three- to five-nerved, striate, pale green, 
narrowed into long slender ribbed sheaths. Scape two to 
four inches long, clothed with distichous imbricating tumid 
ovate-lanceolate acuminate brown sheaths. Flowers three 
to four, erect, two inches long. Perianth tubular below, 
funnel-shaped above, yellowish white with rose-purple tips 
to the segments, and an orange-coloured mid-lobe of the 
lip. Dorsal sepal oblong, obtuse, erect, lateral, produced 
an inch below the ovary, and there adnate to the pro- 
duced base of the column. Lip erect, slender, gradually 
dilated upwards into two narrow rounded lateral lobes; 
mid-lobe tongue-shaped, recurved, subacute, the whole face 
covered with an orange callus. Column slender, top three- 
toothed. Pollen masses eight, in four pairs. Ovary nearly 
an inch long, slender, angles three-winged.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Column and lip ; 2, front, and 3, side view of column; 4, front, and Dy 
back view of anther-case ; 6, two pairs of pollen masses :—al/ enlarged. 
