f 
GLEANINGS AND ORIGINAL MEMORANDA 
362. Helcia sanguinolenta. ' LincUey. A Peruvian epiplivte of tlie Orchidaceous Order, with 
greenish 
brown, and a wliite lip marked ^rith 
veins. 
k 
cultural 
Introduced 
(Fig. 182; a, lip 
iiagnified; h^ column do.; c, pollen-masses.} 
This is one of the curious and little-known Orchids de- 
scribed in the Botankal Ilegister (1845), "but never figured. 
A small plant of it still exists In the garden of the Horti- 
cultural Society, but it never appears among the exhibi- 
tions at the metropolitan shows, and thus is almost forgotten. 
It vvas found among the plants collected by Hartweg for 
the Horticultm^al Society, and was supposed to be a species 
of Trichopilia, of which it has entirely the habit It had 
been collected at Paccha, a miserable village in the Andes of 
Guayaquil. When it flowered it was seen that, although it 
*certainly approaches nearly to that genus, yet it is in reality 
an entirely new form. Instead of its column being rolled 
up in the labellnm, it stands erect and clear of it ; instead 
of the anther having but one cell, it has two ; instead of 
the auther-bed having two lateral lacerated processes, it is 
surrounded by a deep fringed border ; finally, instead of the 
lip being perfectly smooth, continuous, and destitute of all 
appendages at the base, it is contracted about the middle, 
below tlie contraction furnished with a pair of thick fleshy 
lobes hollowed out in the middle, and standing erect on 
each side of the column, without however touching it ; and 
the space between those lobes, forming the very base of the 
lip, is a hollow^ hairy pit. Upon looking at this curious 
apparatus in front, the anther and column look like an 
old-fashioned head-dress peeping over one of those starclied 
high collars, such as ladies 
wore in the days of Queen 
Elizabeth ; or through a 
horse-collar decorated with 
gaudy ribbons ; and this has 
led to the name, which has 
beenfashionedoutof Helcium, 
a word said to mean the collar 
of a horse, though, considering 
its obvious derivation, one 
would rather have imagined 
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VOL. II. 
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