Tas. XXVI. 
SOBRALIA’ DECORA: 
PRETTY SOBRALTIA. 
Trispus: EPIDENDRE ©.—Linptevy. 
Soprawia, Fl. Peruv. Perianthium maximum, petaloideum, subequale ; 
sepalis patentibus vel reflexis, petalis erectis. Labellum cucullatum, columnam 
amplexans, basi angustatum, disco plicato-barbatum, apice bilobum. Columna 
elongata, marginata, clavata, apicis trifidi lobo medio cucullato antherifero. Stigma 
marginatum, basi gibbere gemino nectarifero. Anthera terminalis, stipitata, semi- 
quadrilocuraris. Pollinia farinacea, 4, compressa, posticé coherentia et contortu- 
plicata, ecaudiculata—Herbe American wquinoctiales, terrestres, simplices, saepe 
triorgyales, foliosissimie ; foliis plicatis; floribus racemosis terminalibus, vel axil- 
laribus, niveis, roseis, sanguineis, violaceisve, seepius speciocissimis. Ommnes fere 
species loca rupestria, sicca, aprica, calidissima eligunt, dumeta sepe ampla 
formantes.— Lindl. Gen. § Spe. Orch. p. 176. 
Sopratra decora; radicibus dense fasciculatis, caulibus brevibus plicatis; floribus solitariis cernuis 
patentibus, sepalis petalisque latioribus brevioribus explanatis, lanceolatis acutis apicibus reflexis, labello 
obovato crispo medio lamellato marginibus dilatatis crispis. 
Habitat in Guatemala. Sk 1nNNER. 
Description, 
Roors very numerous, fleshy, bundled together in huge masses. Stems from one to two feet 
high, leafy, and in part covered, though not thickly, with small hairs. LEAveEs lanceolate, acumi- 
nate, plicated, about six inches long. FLOWERS solitary, produced in succession from the swollen 
extremities of the stems, lasting only a single day. SEPALS an inch and a half long, lanceolate, 
acute, curved buchwards, of a faint lilacish white. PrrAats broader and shorter than the sepals, 
curved only at the extremities, white fused into rose-colour down their centre. Lp cucullate, 
obovate, curled at the margin, which is also bent outwards,—an inch and a half long, externally of 
rose-colour, in the inside along the disk prettily streaked with yellow, and provided also with 
numerous small lamella, which traverse it longitudinally. Cotumn almost concealed by the lip, 
an inch long, and at its apex, which is three-cleft, bearing a yellow ANTHER. 
THE present is the second Sobralia that has flowered in European collections, but although a pretty 
and interesting plant, it is by no means an adequate representative of the splendid genus to which it belongs, 
containing, as does the latter, several of the most showy plants in the order. It is to be hoped, however, 
that the flowers of some of these will shortly adorn our stoves, into which two of the very finest, SS. macrantha 
and S. liliastrum, have already found their way. And fortunately, whatever difficulties may attend the 
introduction of the species of this lovely genus, none are experienced in their cultivation, as they all appear 
* So called by the authors of the Flora Peruviana, after Don Francisco Martin Sobral, a botanist of their acquaintance. 
