THE PLANT WOELD 147 



The lanceolate, strongly ribbed leaves are six inches wide and over 

 three feet long. Three to five of these leaves are borne by the pseudo 

 bulbs, which are as large as swan's eggs. There are but five species of 

 Peristeria known, all native to the Columbian Andes. 



Often mistaken for Gattleya triana is its beautiful relative, Laelia 

 anceps. True, the flowers are identical in coloring, and in ha\dng a 

 column resembling a tiny white owl, but the former has terminal flow- 

 ers, a fluted lip, and foui' pollen masses, while the latter is smaller in 

 every way, bears blossoms on a raceme, and has eight pollen masses. 

 Oblong-lanceolate leaves five to ten inches long arise from the pseudo- 

 bulbs; keeled scales clothe the scape, which is a foot or two long; the 

 lanceolate, acuminate sepals and the ovate, acuminate petals are rose- 

 purple, with a greenish line on the back; the labellum inside of the lat- 

 eral lobes is yellow with red marks, the under lobe oblong, acute, deep 

 purple, white on the disk, with a thickened yellow keel terminating in 

 the ridges. The outline of the lip has the form of the whip-poor-will. 

 In Mexico and Guatemala, the homes of the Laelia tribe, they are found 

 clinging to rocks and trees, exposed to the full rays of the tropical sun, 

 and in the wet season to daily drenching rains. Some grow at eleva- 

 tions of from 7500 to 8500 feet. 



Burmah sends as her representative Calanthe Veitchii, one of the 

 tribe Vandeae. The derivation {Kalos, beautiful), speaks for itself. 

 These are robust plants, producing large, broad, many ribbed palm- 

 like leaves, usually evergreen; the flower spike often three feet long, 

 with an immense quantity of bright rose-colored flowers with white 

 throats; the pseudo-bulbs are flask-shaped. 



We now come to a large plant of 3IaxiUaria nigi'escens (from max- 

 illae, the jaws of an insect), referring to a resemblance in column and 

 lip. This epiphytal plant has a group of large pseudo-bulbs bearing 

 thick mottled leaves two inches broad and five long. The rhizome has 

 bulb-hke thicknesses the size of a hickory nut at one inch intervals, 

 each producing a solitary grass-like leaf, and three flowers at the apex. 

 These flowers are one inch across, dull maroon, with lip of pale yellow 

 spotted with maroon, and moveably articulated to the column. Al- 

 though I counted fifty-eight flower sprays of three flowers each, their 

 deep maroon coloring does not attract the attention it would were they 

 of a lighter and brighter hue. 



From Trinidad we have Gongora atropurpurea, another of the Van- 

 deae, and named after the Bishop of Cordova, Don Antonio Gon- 

 gora. Not common in cultivation, it is of but little value, except to col- 

 lectors. The cyhndrical pseudo-bulbs have two lanceolate, subpUcate 

 leaves, one foot long; racemes two feet long, full of chocolate-colored 

 spotted flowers, two inches in diameter; margina of sepals revolute; 



