with purple. The flowers are disposed in a short-branched rigid panicle, elevated 

 on a stalk not quite so long as the longest leaves ; it is about six or nine inches 

 lonp-, and densely covered with flowers, which sometimes assume a corymbose, 

 sometimes a racemose arrangement. The flowers when expanded measure an 

 inch and three-quarters from the tip of their back sepal to the point of their lip; 

 they emit a delicious fragrance resembling that of the garden pink. The sepals 

 are oblong, concave, obtuse, a little waved and greenish yellow at the edge, bright 

 yellow in the middle, and regularly marked with broad blotches of crimson which 

 run together near the base. The two petals are similar to the sepals. The lip 

 is bright violet, darkest at the lower half; at the base it is prolonged on each side 

 into a triangular tooth, and in the middle of the base there are three nearly equal 

 tubercles which towards the column terminate a ridge that gradually lowers and 

 then disappears at the expanded portion of the lip ; above the base it is narrow, 

 it then expands again into a broad, thin, light purple, somewhat truncated and 

 toothed extremity. The column has an oblique, rounded, ear-like appendage on 

 each side, and is capped by a rich crimson anther. 



" Such was the specimen from which the annexed drawing was taken ; but 

 it was far inferior to one which I have just seen (June 29, 1836^, in the rich 

 collection of epiphytes belonging to the Messrs. Rollinsons of Tooting. This 

 plant, which I regard as the most perfect instance of successful cultivation I 

 have yet witnessed among epiphytes, had leaves eighteen inches long, and up- 

 wards of thirty flowers two inches and a quarter in expansion, with all the mark- 

 ings of the sepals and petals of the richest chocolate brown, and of the lip of 

 the deepest violet. In fragrance there was a resemblance to the spicy odour of 

 that sweetest of all flowers Aerides cornutum. 



" In the Society's garden this plant is cultivated along with other epiphytes 

 in a damp hothouse facing the north ; it is planted in a mixture of sandy peat, 

 potsherds, and decayed wood; and under these circumstances it thrives very well. 



" Mr. Lance has favoured me with the following account of the discovery 

 and subsequent management of this remarkable plant in its native country. 



" ' The first specimen of this splendid Epiphyte I discovered, was growing 

 on the trunk of a large tamarind tree, in a noble avenue of those trees close to 

 the Government House in Surinam. I took it home with me and planted it in a 

 pot filled with rotten pieces of wood and a little light earth ; but though it re- 

 mained alive and flowered once or twice, it did not thrive, but wasted away and 

 became less. I afterwards found a great number of the plants in different parts 

 of the colony ; they were generally attached to the stems or branches of the 

 Tamarind, the Sapodilla, or the Calabash trees, appearing to prefer those to any 

 other ; however, on being tied to the branches of the Orange, the Soursop, the 

 Mammee, and even the Brugmansia arborea, it grew well upon them all and pro- 

 duced vigorous stems with upwards of twenty blossoms on each stem. The 

 scent is extremely fragrant, and is retained after the flower is dried, only becoming 

 fainter and more of a spicy flavour than when fresh. The plant remains in full 

 beauty ten or twelve days, a long period in that climate, and I found that it 

 always required a shady situation and a living stem to grow upon, without which 

 it would not produce its flowers in the highest perfection.' 



" Although the Society's sense of the importance of Mr. Lance's endeavours 

 to introduce new plants to this country has already been recognized by the 

 Council having awarded him the Society's Large Silver Medal, yet I trust it will 

 not be considered improper in me to indicate this in a more specific manner, by 

 naming after that gentleman one of the most beautiful of the plants we owe to 

 his exertions." 



