576 orchid-grower's manual. 



stout stem four to six feet high, furnished with oval acu- 

 minate leaves, and very large flowers in a short raceme borne 

 on a flexuose rachis with lai'ge boat-shaped bracts, the sepals 

 and petals dark mauve, the lip, which is very open, crimson 

 with a white centre. The plant will produce four flowers on 

 a spike, open at the same time, and thus makes a gi'and 

 display, while unlike many of the others, it remains in bloom 

 a considerable time. — New Grenada. 



'PlG.—Pdpp. et End!., Nnv. Gen. et Sp., i. t. 93 (rosea) ; Xenia Orch., i. 

 t. 42 (Ruekeri) ; Warner, Sel. Orch. PL, iii. t. 19; Pui/dt, Les Orch., t. 40. 

 Syw.— /S', Ruekeri. 



S. xantholeuca, Hort. — A very rare and handsome species 

 of distinct character, which was flowered by Mr. Hill, gardener 

 to the late R. Hanbury, Esq., The Poles, Ware, and sub- 

 sequently by Mr. Palmer, gardener to T. N. Powell, Esq., 

 Drinkstone Park, Sufiblk, by whom it was purchased for 

 S. macrantha. It has the usual reed-like stems, with lanceo- 

 late acuminate plaited leaves, the sheaths of which are 

 dotted with brown, and large handsome deflexed flowers with 

 oblong-lanceolate sepals, broader petals wavy at the edge, 

 both of a pale or sulphur yellow, and a longer emarginate lip, 

 which is very much frilled and of a deeper yellow. — Native 

 Country not stated. 



Fig. — Garden, xxii. t. 366. 



SOPHEONITIS, Lindley. 



( Tribe Epidendrese, suUribe LEelieae.) 



A small genus of dwarf-growing tufted Orchids, some of the 

 species of which are very beautiful. On this ground, as well 

 as on that of their occupying but little space, most of those 

 which are known are worth cultivating, They are evergreen 

 plants, producing their flowers in short few-flowered racemes 

 or solitary from the top of the pseudobulbs, which are small, 

 clustered, and furnished each with one or two leathery or 

 fleshy leaves. The broad-petalled flowers are very show}'. 

 There are four or five species recorded from the Organ 

 Mountains of Brazil. 



