61 



CIRRHOPETALUM auratum. 



Gold-edged Cirrhopetalum . 



GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 



Nat. ord. Orchidace.e, § Malaxed. 

 CIRRHOPETALUM. Supra 1838. ^ 11. 



C. auratum ; pseudobulbis ovatis sulcatis, folio oblongo convexo, floribus 

 umbellatis, sepalo supremo petalisque setaceo-acuminatis fulvo-ciliatis 

 lateralibus acutis, labello lineari recurvo, columnse auriculis rotundatis 

 integris. Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1840. misc. 107. — 1843. snb t. 49. 



Among the singular species of this genus the present is 

 one of the most interesting. It hangs down from the branch 

 of a tree, or a piece of charred wood, which it soon overruns 

 with its delicate green roots and egg-shaped furrowed pseudo- 

 bulbs. 



t 



The leaves are very thick, deep green above, and convex ; 

 stained with purple beneath. The flower-stem is as slender 

 as a small thread, and too weak to bear the umbels of flowers, 

 which therefore hang down gracefully, and are balanced in 

 the air. 



The umbels, as in many others of this genus, are so 

 arranged that the flowers are all on one plane, and diverging 

 equally from the centre form a circle, whose interior is occu- 

 pied by the lower part of the flowers, and whose circumference 

 is formed by the long flat strap-shaped lateral sepals, which 

 look like so many party-coloured ribbons collected into a 

 balloon. 



The flowers themselves have a yellowish ground, striped 

 and mottled with crimson. The upper sepal and two petals, 

 badly drawn in the figure, are fringed with golden hairs, and 

 tapered into a fine point. The lateral sepals are quite desti- 

 tute of hairiness, and only faintly stained with purple. 



It diff'ers from C. picturatum in its party-coloured, not 

 purple, flowers ; in its petals being far less taper-pointed, and 

 December, 1843. 2 c 



