Pan XE. 
CYCNOCHES EGERTONIANUM: 
STR PHILIP EGERTONS CYCNOCHES. 
Trisus: VANDE#.—Linp.ey. 
Cycrocuss Egertonianum ; foliis vaginantibus undulatis lanceolatis acuminatis racemis multifloris 
nutantibus brevioribus ; sepalis petalisque subsqualibus ovatis acutis, labello columna continuo obovato 
margine incurvo digitis 5 clavatis utrinque instructo epichilio lineari membranaceo digitis vix longiore. 
Habitat in Guatemaléd.—Sxtxnxer. 
Description, 
STEMS from half a foot to a foot long, bearing several membranous, wavy, lanceolate, sharp- 
pointed, sheathing Leaves. RacEMES drooping, many-flowered, longer than the leaves, sometimes 
a foot and a half long. Srpars and Pers almost similar in size and form, ovate, acute, nearly 
an inch long, of a deep chocolate colour on the inner side, and greenish without. Lip exactly con- 
tinuous with the column, contracted at the base, but spreading in a somewhat obovate form, the 
margins being turned inwards, and on either side puckered into five finger-like processes, which 
spread themselves out into a kind of circular wreath; the apex of the lip is prolonged into a mem- 
branous point about the length of the fingers; the ground colour of the lip is green, but the fingers 
are tinged with purple. CoLtumn extremely clavate, longer than the petals, of a dark purple colour. 
STRANGE things—and no less strange than true—have already been recorded of Orchidaceous 
plants, but the case which is represented in the accompanying Plate casts into the shade all former frolics 
of this Protean tribe. ‘The facts are briefly as follow. 
Among Mr. Sxinner’s earliest Guatemala collections, attention was particularly directed to the 
specimens of a plant which to the habit of a Cycnoches joined the long pendulous stems of a Gongora, and 
for the possession of which, in a living state, no small anxiety was entertained. Some plants were 
speedily transmitted by Mr. Skrnner, but these, on flowering, proved to be merely the old C. ventricosum. 
A mistake was of course suspected, and Mr. Skinner being again applied to, sent over a fresh supply of 
plants, for the authenticity of which he vouched; but these were scarcely settled in the stove, when 
flowers of C. ventricosum were again produced. Mr. Skinner being importuned for the third time, 
and being then on the point of returning to this country, determined to take one of the plants under his 
special protection during the voyage, which, flowering on the passage, seemed to preclude the possibility of 
further confusion or disappointment. The specimens produced at sea were exhibited, and the plant itself 
placed in the stove at Knypersley, where it commenced growing with the utmost vigour. ‘The season of 
flowering soon arrived, but brought with it a recurrence of the former scene of astonishment and vexation, 
* Supra sub. Tab. V. 
