Tas. XXXI. 
CHYSIS LOEVIS: 
SHMOOTH-LIPPED CHYSIS. 
Trisus: EPIDENDREA.—LINDLEY. 
CHYSIS.* Lindley in Bot. Reg. sub. t. 1937. 
Separa paulo connata patula; lateralia pedi producto columne adnata et calear 
simulantia. Petala sepalis conformia. Labellum trilobum, patulum, venis basi 
callosis. Columna marginata, canaliculata mutica. Anthera subrotunda opercu- 
laris, glabra. Pollinia 8 in laminam luteam semifusa ; quatuor exterioribus tenuibus 
quatuor interiora ecrassiora abscondentibus. Rostellum laminatum conyexum.— 
Herb epiphyte occidentales ab arboribus penduli, caulibus incrassatis, foliis 
neryosis basi vaginantibus, racemis lateralibus multifloris. 
Cuvsts levis; bracteis brevibus ovatis pedicelli longitudine, sepalo dorsali lineari-oblongo lateralibus 
acuminatis, petalis falcatis, labelli lobis lateralibus falcatis apice rotundatis supra columnam convergentibus 
intermedio membranaceo crispo subrotundo emarginato lamellis 5 carnosis glaberrimis parallelis lateralibus 
minoribus, columna basi altt excavata. Lindl. Bot. Reg. 1840, misc. 130. 
Habitat in Mexico.—Ross. 
Description, 
Srems club-shaped, a foot long, pendulous. Leaves shorter than the stem, waved, plicated, 
ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. RAcEMES pendulous, evolved from among the sheathing scales at the 
base of the stem. Bracrs short, two or three on the stem, to which they closely adhere. The upper 
Sepa is linear-oblong ; the lateral ones acuminate, upwards of an inch long. PErars falcate, 
about the same size as the sepals, and like them of a bright yellow. L1p three-lobed,—the lateral 
lobes, which fold over the column, being falcate and rounded at the ends; the middle lobe roundish, 
very much curled at the edges, slightly emarginate, with five perfectly smooth parallel elevated 
plates, confluent at the base (the side plates being the smallest); the colour of the lip is yellow, with 
orange dots and streaks distributed about the disk. Cotumn deeply hollowed at its base. 
THIS, the finest species of a most singular genus, was discovered in Mexico by Mr. Barker's 
collector, and by him sent to Springfield, where it flowered freely in 1840. It has a more robust habit than 
either C. aurea or C. bractescens ; its flowers are also larger, and produced in more conspicuous racemes. 
All the species, being naturally of a pendulous habit, require to be suspended in the stove: they are, 
however, objects of greater interest to the botanist than to the cultivator, for the bunches of flowers, pretty 
though they be, bear no sort of proportion to the huge unwieldy stems from which they spring ; they last, 
moreover, for only a short time. 
® So called from Xvows, a melting; the pollen-masses being as it were fused together.—Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1937. 
