375 



lamellse on the disk ; the under side of the lip and the conical 

 spur is also yellow. — Sierra Leone. 



FlG.—Bot. Reg., 1844, t. 12. 



L. Speciosus, B. Br. — A fine showy species, having large 

 roundish ovate underground bulbs, from which spring up a 

 tuft of several ensiform sharp-pointed stoutish smooth 

 leaves of a deep green colour. The scape comes from the 

 side of the newly formed bulb, and is erect, many-flowered, 

 two to four feet high, bearing the fragrant flowers in racemes 

 a foot and a half long, the flowers themselves, which have a 

 green bract at their base, being attractive in appearance, and, 

 from the torsion of their pedicels, being what is called resupi- 

 nate, or upside down ; the sepals are small, green, and reflexed ; 

 the petals oblong-ovate, an inch long, spreading, of a bright 

 glowing yellow, and the lip is nearly as long as the petals, 

 ovate-oblong, incurved, retuse, yellow, the cordate base 

 white, feathered with purple veins. " The flowers in general 

 begin to open at the low^er part of the scape about May or 

 June, and continue to expand upwards in succession until 

 the latter end of July or the middle of August." It prefers 

 rich loamy soil, and should be well drained, as in summer it 

 must be liberally watered ; and the intermediate house suits 

 it best. — South Africa. 

 YlG.—Bot. Reg., t. 578 ; Paxt. Mag, Bot., iv. 25, with tab. 



LycASTE, Lindley. 

 {Tribe Yandeae, subtribe CyrtopodieEe.) 



The Ly castes are mostly very useful plants. All the species 

 have short thick pseudobulbs, and ribbed or plicate leaves, 

 and the flowers are produced from the base of the pseudo- 

 bulbs on scapes about six inches in length, and are not only 

 large but showy, and remarkably durable. They have some- 

 what ringent flowers with erecto-patent sepals, the petals are 

 dissimilar and produced into a short chin at the base, and 

 the lip has a transverse fleshy appendage between its lateral 

 lobes. Several fine varieties have appeared during the past 

 few years, chiefly belonging to L. Skinneri, and difi'ering 



