SOPHRONITIS. 577 



Culture. — These pretty little plants thrive best on blocks 

 of wood, or in small baskets, with a moderate supply of heat 

 and moisture all the year round. They are propagated by 

 dividing the plants just as they begin to grow. 



S. cernua, Lindley. — A remarkably small epiphyte found 

 on trees, and attaining a height of about three inches, growing 

 amongst the moss. It has short two-edged stems (scarcely 

 pseudobulbs) sheathed with scales, produced on a creeping 

 rhizome, each bearing a solitary oval apiculate leaf rather 

 more than an inch long, and a short eifuse axillary raceme of 

 small rosy red flowers, yellowish in the centre ; the column 

 is white, with dark purple wings. It blooms during the 

 winter, lasting long in beauty. — Brazil. 



T<'lG.—Bot. Mag., t. 3677 ; Bot. Reg., t. 1129 ; Paxt. Fl. Gard., iii. 10, fig. 

 236. 

 SrN. — S. Hoffmannseggii ; S. nutans. 



S. COCCinea, Rchb. f. — An exceedingly beautiful species, 

 with short oval terete stems, each bearing a single oblong 

 acute dark green leaf, about three inches in length, and 

 solitary flowers upwards of three inches in diameter, of stout 

 substance, and of a brilliant scarlet or cinnabar colour ; the 

 sepals are linear- oblong obtuse, the petals three times as 

 broad, and the undivided lip ovate cucullate at the base. 

 Dr. Lindley included this plant under 8. yrandiftora. It 

 blooms during the winter months, and should be either grown 

 on a block with a little moss attached, or in a small basket 

 with moss and a little peat, and suspended from the roof. — 

 Brazil. 



Fig.— Flore des Serres, t. 1716. 

 Syn. — Cattleya coccinea. 



S. grandiflora, Lindley. — A truly handsome species, the 

 finest of the genus, the flowers of which are large, and of a 

 beautiful scarlet colour, lasting six weeks or more in per- 

 fection. The pseudobulbs are oblong cylindraceous, bearing 

 one elliptic leaf, and a solitary flower fully three inches 

 across, with oblong-lanceolate sepals and roundish elliptic 

 petals of a bright cinnabar or deep crimson, and a three- 

 lobed lip, the side lobes of which are incurved, and the 

 acuminate front lobe flat, all these parts yellow with bright 

 red streaks. This plant, which blooms in November and 



