416 oechid-grower's manual. 



MOEMODES, Lindley. 



{Tribe Vandese, sublribe Stanhopiese.) 



A most interesting genus, of which only a few of the species 

 find favour with Orchid cultivators. They are related closely 

 to Ccdasetitm, but differ in the sepals being usually narrow 

 and more spreading, and the lip narrowed below into a claw, 

 incurved, ascendent, and obliquely twisted. They are epi- 

 phytes, with short oblong or fusiform stems, sheathed by the 

 membranaceous bases of the old leaves, of which three or four 

 lance-shaped pHcated ones are produced at the top ; the scapes 

 issue from some of the nodes of the stems. They are found 

 in Colombia, Central America, and Mexico, upwards of a 

 dozen species being described. 



Culture. — These plants are of deciduous habit, and do best 

 in the Cattleya house, potted in peat, with a liberal quantity 

 of water supplied to the roots during their period of growth, 

 after which water should be gradually withheld until they 

 become quite dry, when they may be placed near the glass 

 till they begin to grow. They are propagated by division. 



M. buccinator, Lindley. — A very curious distinct species, 

 which Eeichenbach describes as "the most polychromatic 

 Orchid of the world." The form originally described by 

 Lindley had the flowers pale green, "with an ivory-white 

 lip, whose sides are so rolled back as to give it the appearance 

 of a trumpet." Other forms have pale yellow flowers, densely 

 spotted with crimson, and a greenish yellow lip, also spotted 

 with crimson, the markings on the sepals much smaller than 

 those on the petals. This species well represents the con- 

 tortion of the parts of the flower peculiar to this genus, the 

 column being twisted sometimes to the right, sometimes to 

 the left. It flowers in the autumn months. — Mexico. 



There is also a variety named M. huccinator majus, 

 Bchh. /., which has largqj- ochre- coloured flowers with 

 numerous small cinnamon-coloured dots on the sepals and 



