574 oechid-grower's manual. 



succession of new flowers, for as soon as one decays another 

 appears. The sepals are subequal, erect, connate at the base, 

 the patals similar or broader, the lip erect from the base of the 

 column, around which its lateral lobes are folded, the limb 

 concave, undulated or fimbriate, undivided or two-lobed, and 

 the column elongate and subincurved. There are about thirty 

 species, found in the Andes of Tropical America, from Peru 

 to Mexico. 



Culture. — The East Indian or Mexican house will either of 

 them suit these plants, which thrive best in pots of large size 

 potted in rough fibrous peat, in which they grow best, and 

 which should overlie about three inches of drainage. An 

 abundant supply of water at the roots in the growing season 

 is essential to their well-being, but afterwards much less will 

 suffice. The stems grow up in thick tufts, and when the 

 plants get too large, they should be turned out of the pot, 

 and divided into several pieces, each of which will soon grow 

 and make a flowering plant. The genus is far too much 

 neglected by Orchid growers. 



S. leuCOXantlia, Pichh. /. — A handsome species, allied to 

 5. viacrophylla, but dwarfish in habit, the stems being a 

 foot or more in height, and the plicate leaves cuneate oblong 

 elongately acuminate, with the nervose sheaths marked by 

 black warts. The bracts of the spathe are acute congested, 

 scariose spotted with brown, and from between them issue the 

 flowers, which are as large as those of S. Fenzliana, the oblong 

 ligulate apiculate recurved sepals white, the somewhat shorter 

 and broader petals also white, and the lip white outside, deep 

 golden yellow flushed with orange in the throat and disk, 

 passing ofi" to white at the edge, oblong flabellate, convolute 

 at the base round the thick clavate column, which is half its 

 length, the expanded front portion bilobed and crennlate in 

 front. A plant which blossomed at the Priory, St. Helen's, 

 Isle of Wight, during August last, appears to correspond with 

 this, but the lip in the present case was very much undulated 

 at the margin. — Costa Puca. 



