85 



flowered in several collections. The finest specimens I have 

 seen were sent by Mr. Bateman to Messrs. Loddiges. The 

 stems are erect, about six inches high, not very unlike a 

 small state of Dendrobium nobile, and are covered by a pro- 

 fusion of nodding racemes of rather small green and white 

 flowers. 



157. CCELOGYNE Wallichiana. 

 Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. 43. 



At last a plant of the beautiful division of Coelogyne, 

 called Pleione by Professor Don, has appeared in the collec- 

 tion at Chatsworth, whither it had been brought by Mr. John 

 Gibson. It has large, handsome, scentless, deep rose- 

 coloured flowers, growing close to the ground, from within 

 some hard tuberculated sheaths, proceeding from the base 

 of depressed flask-shaped green and purple speckled pseudo- 

 bulbs. In its native country this and allied species cover 

 the ground with a pavement of their curious stems, which 

 wither up in the dry season, but change into a brilliant 

 carpet of rosy flowers upon the approach of rain. A figure 

 is prepared for this work. 



158. MEDINlLLA erythrophylla. 



M. (Sarcoplacuntia?) erythrophylla; ramulis teretibus laevibus, foliis oppositis 

 breviter petiolatis lanceolatis acuminatis basi acutis triplinerviis, cymis axil- 

 laribus, floribus octandris, antheris muticis, calyce truncate 



Among the plants brought from India to Chatsworth by 

 Mr. John Gibson was a plant called Melastoma erythrophylla, 

 which, upon flowering, proved to belong to the beautiful 

 genus Medinilla, of which Dr. Blume has described twenty- 

 one species in his observations upon Melastomacese in the 

 Botanische Zeitung. It appears to be a small^ shrub ; the 

 branches are round, even, without any trace of inequalities ; 

 the leaves are opposite in pairs, fleshy, lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, quite acute at the base, triple-nerved, and entirely 

 smooth on both sides ; when young they are deep red, when 

 old they are bright green. The flowers are bright rose 

 colour, three-quarters of an inch long, and arranged in 

 axillary cymes. The species is apparently very near M. rubi- 



