CHAPTER Exe 
STANHMOPEA. 
THIS genus comprises about twenty species, most of which 
_ have been in cultivation at some time or other. They are 
characterised by fleshy, egg-shaped pseudo-bulbs, clustered 
on a very short rhizome, and which become furrowed or 
wrinkled with age. Each pseudo-bulb is surrounded by a 
layer of loose, fibrous, brown sheaths, and is surmounted 
by a single, stalked, leathery, plaited, stout, green leaf. 
The scape springs from the base of the matured pseudo- 
bulb, and is invariably pendulous; it varies in length and 
in the number of its flowers, and is clothed with 
conspicuous, boat-shaped bracts, which are largest about 
the flower-stalks. The flowers are large, often bright- 
coloured and spotted; the sepals are large, broad, and 
spreading; the petals are similar but narrower, and usually 
thinner in texture. The lip is large, fleshy or wax-like 
in texture, and very remarkable in structure; the basal 
portion (hypochil) is globose or boat-shaped, and _ hollow ; 
the intermediate portion (mesochil) varies in size and 
form, and nearly always terminates in a pair of stiff, horn- 
like lobes; the apex or front lobe (epichil) is more like 
what is termed the lip in Orchids generally. The column 
is large and conspicuous, and is usually flattened or winged. 
The species described are found only in South and Central 
