Tas. XXXIII. 
BARKERIA SPECTABILIS: 
SHEWY BARKERTIA. 
Barkerta spectabilis ; caulibus brevibus foliosis 2-4 phyllis racemo laxo multifloro subequalibus ; 
sepalis lineari-lanceolatis, petalis ovatis acuminatis, labello ovato-lanceolato tricarinato. 
Habitat in Guatemala.—Sxtxner, Harrwec. In Mexico —Karwinsk1 
Description, 
STEMS cylindrical, four or five inches high, each of which bears two to four fleshy, lanceolate, 
acute LEAVES, separated from each other by intervals of about an inch. RACEME rising out of 
some brown dry sheaths, bearing from three to twelve most lovely nodding blossoms. The expanded 
FLOWERS are nearly three inches and a half wide, their colour is bright lilac. The SEPALS are 
linear-lanceolate; the PETALS ovate-lanceolate and unspotted ; but the Lip is white at the base 
and in the middle, lilac at the edge and point, and richly marked with small blood-red spots. Along 
its middle, below the column, are five purple lines, which pass into three elevated colourless ridges, 
beyond the place where the anther touches the lip.—Lindl. Bot. Reg. Misc. 45, 1842. 
THIS beautiful Barkeria has been frequently received from Mexico and Guatemala, but the plants 
were almost invariably infested by the deadly white scale (too well known to cultivators), and, after lingering 
a few seasons, pined and died. Some noble specimens, collected by Mr. Harrwec, and received under 
more favourable auspices by the Horticultural Society, were the first to flower, and from one of these the 
accompanying figure was obtained in May, 1842, in the Society’s garden at Chiswick. Mrs. Wray, of 
Cheltenham, to whom the species was sent by Mr. Skinner, has also succeeded in flowering it in high 
perfection, the secret of her success being obviously the comparatively moderate temperature maintained in her 
stoves, and which appears to be exactly adapted to the Orchidacez of the more elevated districts of Guatemala. 
Baskets filled with moss, or blocks of wood, are found to be most congenial to the roots of this Barkeria ;— 
in peat they perish directly. 
In the monster below, disinterred by Mr. Skinner near Istapa, we have another, but by no means 
prepossessing specimen of the sculpture of the early Mexicans. It was most kindly drawn for this work 
by Mrs. Ranpite WriBanam. 
