SPLENDID as are all the species of Stanhopea, this is, unquestionably, the finest of them all. Its 
flowers are powerfully fragrant, and larger than any that have been hitherto met with among Orchidaceous 
plants ; they are also furnished with a huge fleshy lip, of so strange and fantastic a figure, that it would 
rather seem to have been carved out of ivory, or modelled in wax, than to be a bond-fide production of the 
vegetable world. Its colouring, too, is so rich and varied, that even Mrs. Wrruers’s skill was taxed to the 
utmost to convey an adequate notion of it. 
Our gardens are indebted for its possession to the exertions of Mr. Hrncuman (of the Clapton 
Nursery), who discovered it in the neighbourhood of Xalapa, when he visited that town in the course of his 
botanical mission to Mexico, in 1835; and certainly, even if they had yielded no other fruits, he might 
almost have been satisfied with the result of his labours. Mr. Hencuman had, however, the good fortune 
to introduce some other Orchidacew of the highest interest and beauty, among which Vrichopilia tortilis, 
and Comparettia falcata, may be especially noted; the former of which is already known by the excellent 
figure of it in the Botanical Register, and the latter, which is also found in Peru (and is figured accordingly 
in the invaluable work on the plants of that country, now in course of publication by M. M. Pappic and 
Ex purcuer), has a spike of bright rose-coloured flowers not less graceful in form than singular in structure. 
S. tagrina was found by Mr. Hencuman at a considerable elevation above the level of the sea, and the only 
specimen which he observed in flower, was growing (at the distance of about five feet from the ground) in the cleft of an 
aged tree in a deep and dismal glen, and at the time of its discovery (July) its blossoms were already on the wane. We 
received a plant of the species in the latter part of 1835, and immediately placed it in a suitable position among a 
group of old oak stumps which occupy the centre of our Orchidaceous House, and, in this situation, it flowered freely 
in May, 1837; indeed we have no hesitation in pronouncing it the most easily cultivated of all the Stanhopeas—no 
small addition to its other merits. We would not, however, be understood to recommend our readers to adopt 
generally the system of treatment which happened to succeed in the present instance; and, to say truth, we no sooner 
discovered the rare perfections of our plant, than we gave it the security of a pot, in which it now grows far more 
vigorously than before its translation. Like all the other Stanhopeas, it must be placed on the apex of a cone, eight 
or ten inches high, formed of small pieces of turfy peat neatly put together. 
The Vignette represents Stanhopea tigrina as it appeared at the time of its flowering in the Epiphyte House at 
Knypersley, and is taken from a sketch made on the spot by a very promising young artist of the name of Woop. 
“Nomen erit ¢igris, pardus, leo, si quid adhuc est, 
© Quod fremit in terris violentior 
JUVENAL. 
