()2 



CATASETUM maculatum. 



Spotted Feelerbloom. 



GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 

 Nat. ord. Orchidace^, § Vande^. 

 CATASETUM. Botanical Register, vol. 20.fol. 1667. 



C. maculatum ; sepalis petalisque conniventibiis, labello carnoso galeato basi 



inflexo lateribus suis invicem imbricautibus. 

 a. labello basi ciliato. 



C. maculatum. Bateman Orchid, of Mexico ^ Guatemala, t.W. anKunthii? 

 C. integerrimum. Hooker in Bot. Mag. t. 3823. 

 j8. labello basi IcBvi. 



This Catasetum is very nearly the same as the old C. 

 tridentatum, from which it differs in its helmet-shaped lip 

 having- the lower edges brought together so as to press upon 

 the column, instead of being wide apart. Whether or not it 

 is the C. maculatum of Kunth J. am unable to say. It pro- 

 bably is, it possibly is not. That plant was never seen by 

 the Botanist who described it, but it was taken up from M. v. 

 Humboldt's notes. Those notes were made upon the living- 

 plant as found at Turbaco, and are therefore less liable to 

 error than if they had been made up from a dried specimen. 

 Now Baron Humboldt says that in his plant the petals are 

 somewhat serrated, and the leaves only three inches long, 

 arising from the apex of the bulb ; but here the petals are 

 not serrated, the leaves are nearer a foot in length, and they 

 arise from the sides, not apex, of the pseudo-bulb. Are these 

 differences unimportant ? Serrated petals are not uncommon 

 in the order, but they have not yet been seen in Catasetum ; 

 in this plant the lip is sometimes serrated, sometimes perfectly 

 even at the edge ; perhaps therefore the petals may be also 

 both serrated and entire in different individuals. It is pro- 

 bable that there is some mistake about the length of the 

 leaves, because no such size either has been or seems likely 



