GOVENIA. 337 



■white, and purple on the under side. The flowers are 

 small, in ten-flowered spikes, and of a cheerful rosy pink 

 colour. It is of robust though dwarf and compact in habit, 

 and of free and easy growth. — Japan. 



Fig.— Flore des Serres, t. 1779 ; Gartenflora, t. 633, fig. 1. 



GOVENIA, LincUeij. 

 ( Tribe Vandese, suhtribe Cyrtopodieffi.) 



A small genus of terrestrial Orchids, some few of which 

 are of sufficient interest and beauty to be worthy of a place in 

 collections of these plants. They are herbs, with tuberiform 

 rhizomes, from which grow up the erect stems, bearing a few 

 leaves, and crowned by a raceme of numerous flowers of 

 medium size, which are singular in form and prettily marked ; 

 the sepals are connivent, the lateral ones falcate or decurved, 

 and with the foot of the winged column forming a short 

 mentum or chin ; and the lip, which is articulated with the 

 foot of the column, is undivided. About a dozen species are 

 known, natives of Mexico, Brazil, and the West Indies. 



Culture. — These plants should be grown in the cool house, 

 in a mixture of loam and leaf-mould with a little sand added. 

 After their growth is finished give them a good season of rest, 

 and keep dry till they begin to grow. 



Gr. deliciosa, Bchh.f. — A rather pretty species, quite distinct 

 in character from any other Orchid. It has a tuberous root- 

 stock, from which proceeds an erect stem some foot and a- half 

 in height, furnished with two lanceolate acuminate nervose 

 leaves about nine inches long, the bases of which are enclosed 

 with that of the stem in a pair of basal bracts ; at the top of 

 the stem is a raceme of six or eight bracteated flowers, whose 

 pedicels are dull red, the flowers themselves being white, with 

 oblong-lanceolate sepals and petals, and an elliptic apiculate 

 Hp, which is yellow at the base, the front half white covered 

 with round purple dots. — JSlexico. 



