METEORIC FLOWERS. 



271 



flowers, with violet transverse bars across the petals, 

 and may be characterised rather as singularly 

 beautiful than eccentric. 



Of all genera of orchids 

 none are stranger than that 

 called Masdevallia. The 

 species are designated by 

 such names as "chimera," 

 nycterina, troglodytes, &c., 

 which are justified by their 

 weird and "uncanny" ap- 

 pearance. Description 

 alone could scarce convey 

 an adequate impression of 

 these strange flowers, some 

 with long tails hanging down from the extremity of 

 each petal, others with similar appendages thrust out, 

 more rigidly, in all directions, and all with a sombre 

 hue, suggesting thoughts of gorgons, medusJe, and of 

 " hydras and chimeras dire." 



The flowers of the family of birthworts are 

 tubular or trumpet-shaped, here and there strangely 

 inflated, lurid in colouring, sometimes foetid in odour, 

 and often of large size ; many of them are climbers, 

 and their rugged, contorted stems, Avith a snake-like 

 form have in many countries a reputation as an 

 antidote to snake-bites. 



The asclepiads have regular flowers, often with 



Fig. 47. - 

 D^Albcrtisii 

 Chronicle "). 



Deiidrobium 

 (" Gardener's 



