509 



PaphiniA, LindUij. 



{Tribe Vandese, subtribe Cyrtopodiese.) 



Of this pretty genus there are only a few species known, 

 but they are all well worth gi'owing, being compact in habit, 

 and having short pseudobulbs, plicate leaves from six inches 

 to a foot in length, and pendulous scapes bearing flowers of 

 rather a grotesque appearance from the peculiar distribution 

 of their colours. They were originally assigned to Maxillaria, 

 but Bentham places them under Lycaste. They are found 

 wild in Demerara, Trinidad, and New Grenada. 



Culture. — The species of PapJdnia succeed best in the 

 East Indian house, suspended from the roof in pots or pans 

 of good fibrous peat and sphagnum moss, with the addition 

 of a few lumps of charcoal, and with plenty of drainage. 

 They enjoy a liberal supply of water aL the roots during the 

 growing season. Propagation is effected by separating the 

 bulbs. 



P. cristata, Lindley. — A pretty dwarf free-flowering species, 

 which grows about eight inches high, and has small shining 

 oblong-ovate compressed slightly furrowed pseudobulbs, with 

 two or more oblong-lanceolate plicate leaves from their apex, 

 and from the base a pendent scape, usually bearing about 

 three flowers, which are some three inches across. The sepals 

 and petals are all lanceolate spreading, the fleshy sepals and 

 the smaller petals are white almost covered with longitudinal 

 streaks, and near the base transverse bars of dark chocolate 

 brown ; the lip is much smaller, thick and fleshy, somewhat 

 ovate in outline, shortly clawed, with oblong acinaciform 

 lateral lobes, and a central rhomboidal one, almost wholly of a 

 rich chocolate brown, but with a terminal tuft or pencil of 

 club-shaped downy white fimbria, the disk bidentate, and the 

 column yellowish green banded with chocolate. There are 

 two varieties, one of which produces much darker flowers 

 than the other. It blooms at difi'erent times of the year, and 



