24 



CYMBIDIUM pendulum, var. brevilabre. 



Short-lipped thick-leaved Cymhldium. 



GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 

 Nat. ord. Orchidace^. § Vande^. 

 CYMBIDIUM. Botanical Register, vol. /. fol. 529. 



C pendulum (Swartz. nov. act. ups. 6. 73. Willd. Sp. pi. 4. 101. Roxb. 

 Fl. Ind. 3. 458. L. p. 165. Bot. Reg. 1840. t 25. C. crassifolium. 

 Wall. Cat. no. 7357. Ejndendrum pendulum, Roxb. corom. plants, 1 . 

 35. t. 44.) ; foliis ensiformibus distichis coriaceis obliqu^ obtusis, 

 racemis pendulis multifloris, bracteis minutis, petalis sepalisque lineai'i- 

 oblongis obtusis, labelli trilobi lobis lateralibus acutis intermedio oblongo 

 apiculato : lamellis continuis approximatis apice confluentibus. 



\ ax. brevilabre ; labello latiore lobis lateralibus acutioribus intermedio sub- 

 rotundo-oblongo. Bot. Reg. 1844. misc. 67. 



Having already figured this plant, it may perhaps be 

 thought that the variety now given is too trifling to deserve a 

 separate representation. We are however rather anxious to 

 shew that when these Orchidaceous plants do run into ordinary 

 varieties, it is only within recognizable limits, as happens in 

 other plants, and that the masquerading dress under which 

 such plants as Catasetum and Cycnoches occasionally appear, 

 are not, as some suppose, to be taken as indications of a dis- 

 position to vary, which throws suspicion upon all specific dis- 

 tinctions in the order. 



As far as our experience goes, the ordinary variations to 

 which Orchidacese are subject, are in all respects analogous 

 to what is met with in other plants, and as is exemplified by 

 the plant before us from Sincapore, in which, while the lip 

 becomes shorter, broader, and with a much blunter middle 

 lobe, every thing else remains so exactly the same, that nobody 

 can entertain a doubt about the specific identity of the plant 

 with Cymbidium pendulum. The vertical plates of the lip, 

 in particular, are quite unchanged, shewing, as we find it 

 always shewn, that the elevations and processes of the surface 

 of the lip are of the utmost importance in considering the 

 limits of species. Eria bractescens and longilabris, published 

 in the present number, t. 29, furnish the converse of the rule. 

 They are much alike, and their labella vary in form in a 

 manner not unlike that of C. pendulum and C. p. brevilabre ; 



Matj, 1844. L 



