386 ORCHIDS. 
best when fastened to a block of soft wood, although some 
growers are successful with it under basket-treatment. It 
should have a little sphagnum about its roots during the 
growing season. Should the plants get weak, it is a good 
plan to remove all the flower-spikes and encourage new 
growth. This species is interesting on account of its 
having been the first Orchid to find much favour among 
horticulturists. It was introduced from Trinidad in 1823. 
Plate; Botanical Magazine, t. 2795. 
There are several varieties, the best being the following: 
Var. Eckhardtii.—Remarkable for its large flowers, having 
a lip coloured yellow, with an orange-red border. 
Var. Kramerianum.—This is the finest of all. When 
healthy, it has leaves about rft. long by 4in. wide, beautifully 
mottled with cinnamon. The flowers are large; the sepals 
and petals are rich golden yellow, with reddish blotches ; 
the lip is pale yellow, with a zone of reddish spots near 
the margin. It is a native of Central America. Syn. 
O. Kramerianum. 
0. pretextum.—A free-flowering, ornamental plant, which 
in pseudo-bulbs, leaves, and general habit, is almost 
identical with O. crispum. Flower-spike long, arching, 
branched, and many-flowered; flowers each 2in. across; 
sepals obovate, stalked, jin. long, yellow, with bands of 
brown; petals stalked, obovate, wavy, twice as large as 
the sepals, brown, with a tinge of yellow on the margins; 
lip 14in. broad, kidney-shaped, narrow at the base, having 
short side lobes and a warted crest with three blunt 
teeth, yellow, with a broad marginal band of brown. It 
requires the same treatment as O. crispum, and blossoms 
in July, the flowers lasting for about a month. A native 
of Brazil; introduced in 1876. 
Botanical Magazine, t. 6662. 
