CYCNOCHES. 229 



three or four large pi icato -venose leaves with a sheathing base, 

 which, being deciduous, are lost as soon as they have finished 

 their growth. The large peculiar-shaped flowers are produced 

 in erect or nodding racemes from the base of the pseudobulbs ; 

 they have spreading sepals and petals, a fleshy lip contracted 

 at the base, and a very long slender arcuate column, which is 

 somewhat thickened at the apex. Some eight or ten species 

 of Tropical America are known. 



Culture. — They are best grown at the coolest end of the 

 East Indian house, in pots, with rough fibrous peat and good 

 drainage, and should have a liberal supply of water at the 

 roots in their growing season ; afterwards they may be kept 

 much cooler, and should be placed near the glass, to receive 

 all the light possible. They are very impatient of moisture 

 during their season of rest, being speedily destroyed if at all 

 over-watered. When they begin to grow they must be 

 moved back into heat. They are propagated by dividing 

 the pseudobulbs when they begin to start. 



C. aureiun, Lindley. — A very attractive and noble species, 

 known to many by the name of the Golden Swan Orchid. 

 The flowers are closely set in a long drooping raceme, and 

 are rather large, with lanceolate flat sepals, petals of similar 

 form but rolled back from the tip, and a small short-stalked 

 lip with a roundish disk, the edge of which is broken up into 

 short curved processes, forked at the point, the two lower ones 

 larger and distinct. It will succeed well under the treatment 

 recommended above. — Central America. 



Fig.— Paxt. Fl. Card., iii. t. 75 ; Lem. Jard. Fl, t. 264. 



C. barbatlim, Lindley. — A singular and curious plant which 

 appears to connect Cycnoches with Goncjora. It has ovate 

 compressed pseudobulbs 1^ inch long, solitary elliptic ob- 

 long plicate leaves, and radical dark purple scapes a foot long, 

 terminating in a drooping raceme of equal length, bearing many 

 (50 — 80 fide Rchb.) narrow-petalled but large and handsomely 

 spotted flowers, of an orange-yellow dotted with dark purple, 



