330 obchid-grower's manual. 



singular grotesque-looking richly coloured flowers on scapes 

 which spring from the base of the pseudobulbs. The flowers 

 have the petals and the erect dorsal sepal adnate with the 

 back and sides of the column, and a very peculiar hollow 

 fleshy lip, having two or more awns or horns from near its 

 base. About a score of species are known, all Tropical 

 American. 



Culture. — In the earlier days of Orchid culture one often 

 saw fine specimens of Gongora, but latterly they seem to 

 have become quite neglected, though they bear a really 

 elegant inflorescence, and are of varied and attractive colours. 

 As the flower spike is pendulous and produced from the base 

 of the pseudobulbs, the plants are best grown in baskets with 

 peat and moss ; indeed the spikes are extremely liable to injury 

 if grown in pots. The temperature of the cool end of the 

 Cattleya house suits them well ; they enjoy a liberal supply 

 of water during summer, both on the foliage and at the roots, 

 but a very little will sufiice in winter, though even then the 

 pseudobulbs should not be allowed to shrivel. 



Gr. atropurpurea, Hook. — ^An old but pretty species, compact 

 in growth, with oblong-cylindrical ribbed pseudobulbs, bearing 

 at the top two large ovate-lanceolate light green leaves, and 

 from the base very long drooping racemes of numerous dark 

 purple-brown or chocolate-coloured purple- spotted flowers, 

 which are produced during the summer months. The flowers 

 are peculiar in form, the sepals lanceolate, the upper one 

 springing from the back of the column smaller than the other 

 two, which are spreading ; the petals are quite small, incurved, 

 fixed near the base of the upper sepal and some distance 

 above the lateral ones. The lip is nearly an inch long, 

 standing out at a right angle with the rest of the flower. At 

 the base is a cylindrical claw, above which are four horns, two 

 obtuse and two acuminate ; the apex is laterally compressed, 

 acuminated, forming a vertical plate, double at its upper edge, 

 and gibbous at its base. The column is very long, curved, 

 broadest upwards, semi-cylindrical, bearing on its back and 



