£Jl JSspirlto Santu. 5 



for the cultivation of tropical plants, this specimen, after continuing in vigorous 

 growth for two years, threw up its first flower stem which was duly covered with a 

 most gorgeous show of flowers. It subsequently bloomed a second time, last fall. 



Both the flowers and leaves, with the distinctive dove representation within the 

 center of one of the flowers is shown in the accompanying illustration, which has 

 been engraved from a photograph taken of the same while at the height of its show. 

 The bulb, from the tops of which the leaves grow and from the base of which the 

 flower stem springs, is not shown ; but the leaves, flowers and upper portion of the 

 flower stalk is distinctly shown. 



Five leaves spring from each bulb, from twenty to thirty inches in length, by five 

 or six in breadth — lanceolate in form. The flower stem grows from three to four 

 feet in height, bearing upon its summit a spike of globose, fleshy, yellowish-white 

 flowers, yielding a very peculiar and delicate perfume. 



The flowering of this plant attracted much attention and a large number of visitors 

 to the garden last season. It is expected that it will flower again this season. A 

 carefully prepared representation of the flower was made in wax, at the time, by Mrs. 

 A. 0. Cook, of 304 Mason street, which may be seen in a small vase just to the left 

 of the front entrance to the rotunda museum. Copies of the same have also been 

 made, and are in possession of several persons in the city. In its native clime 

 (Central America), this plant blooms just at the commencement of the rainy season, 

 and, of course, just after its annual period of rest. The flowers hold on about one 

 month. It is now known to botanists as Perestei'ia alaia, and is figured in vol. 5 

 (new series), of Curtis' Botanical Magazine (No. of Engraving 3,115). The plant 

 belongs to the order of Orchidacea, a class of plants of wide distribution, occupying 

 in some of its varieties almost every portion of the earth from the equator to almost 

 the extreme northern and southern limits of the poles. It is only, however, as we 

 approach the equator that the varieties of this plant assume peculiar or beautiful 

 forms. There, owing to the peculiar condition of the column, the anther containing 

 the pollen, and the often remarkable development of some one or more of the inner 

 leaves or petals into unusual forms, the flowers frequently take the most singular and 

 sometimes beautiful or fantastic forms. An insect, or a spider, a butterfly, etc., 

 sometimes a bird, as in the peristeria alata, not unfrequently a reptile, and sometimes 

 a helmet with visor closed or raised, and often other singular and most beautiful 

 forms are seen. 



Sometimes there is a peculiar sensibility connected with the flower, which makes 

 it a most eff"ective insect trap, so hinged that it immediately entraps and holds fast 

 any insect which may alight upon it, when its size is suflicient to enclose such intruder. 



The particular specimen at Woodward's and which is herewith figured, is a pseudo- 

 bulbous epiphyte plant — having the appearance of a bulb, but not a real bulb, and 

 growing upon other plants but not penetrating their substance, nor absorbing their 

 juices, as is the case with a real parasite. This variety is also sometimes found 

 growing upon rocks or upon the earth, generally choosing dry, hilly localities. It 

 grows well artificially in turfy peat or rotten wood. It is thus kept at Woodward's, 

 where it is seen in a rustic hanging-basket. S. 



Sa?i Fra7icisco, Cal. 



