a 
1843,] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
719 
an hour of sunset, so that every facility was offered for its 
escape, the little stranger regularly became visible after 
dark for ten or twelve evenings in succession, and was 
seen by many of the inhabitants of Swaffham, whose 
curiosity attracted them to the spot. I can only account 
for this circumstance by having lately received from Italy 
five or six Orange-trees, the roots of which, being encased 
in balls of mould, might have afforded a shelter to the 
insect in its chrysalis state, subsequently developed into 
active existence by the heat of the greenhouse. May I 
beg to be informed, through the pages of the ‘* Annals,” 
if the appearance of this insect in England be hitherto 
unrecorded ? and any light which can be thrown on the 
subject will greatly oblige, John Dugmore, jun.—Annals 
of Natural History. 
Mr. Fortune. — As we were going to press letters 
reached us from this gentleman, dated Hong-Kong, July 
7, and we hasten to acquaint his friends with his safety 
and good health. 
‘wan River Vegetation. — ConvouvuLacex. — We 
have two species of Convolvulus on the alluvial,banks of our 
rivers, the seeds of which are sought after by the bronze- 
winged pigeons, at one season; and we have Brown’s 
Calystegia sepium, a beautiful plant, with us only found 
in salt marshes, about Australind, the Vasse, &c. In our 
late journey to the south I saw it in flower, in great per- 
ection, near the mouth of the Sabina river; the flowers a 
beautiful rose colour, with five broad white stripes. This 
plant certainly comes very near the Convolvulus sepium 
of Linnzus, but I think it may be distinguished from it 
as a species by its more slender habit, and from its only 
growing in salt marshes. Wilsonia humilis is {plentiful 
near the Vasse inlet, and we have several species of Cus- 
cuta.— Drummond, in the Inquirer. 
Mebies. 
The Orchidacee of Mexico and Guatemala. 
Imperial folio. 
By James 
Ridgway. 
Av length we have before us the conclusion of this, the 
Most magnificent Botanical Work in the English language. 
The Part now produced is inferior to none of its prede- 
Cessors in the beauty of its illustrations, and is, moreover, 
enriched with some valuable observations of a general kind 
On various subjects connected with Orchidaceous plants, 
their habits, and cultivation. 
Among the more remarkable of the plants whose por- 
traits are now given, we find Lelia superbiens, Sobralia 
macrantha, and Barkeria spectabilis; the former drawn 
from dried, the latter from living specimens, and a charm- 
ing species of Epidendrum, from Mexico, called Erubes- 
cens, of which living plants did, and possibly still do, exist 
at Paris. Of this Mr, Bateman speaks in the following 
manner :— 
“Stems probably short, and bearing but few ovate- 
lanceolate acuminate leaves, two or three inches long. 
Panicle terminal, usually compound, and sometimes rising 
to the height of a foot and a half, bearing a multitude of 
large flowers, supposed to be of a rosy hue throughout. 
Pedicles longer than the flowers. Sepals nearly an inch 
long, oval-lanceolate, much narrower than the spatulate 
petals. Lip about the same length as the sepals, united 
to the column of its apex, and three-lobed, the lateral 
lobes being short and rounded, and not half the size of 
the intermediate one, which is kidney-shaped, and half an 
inch long. Cultivators will be disappointed to learn that 
this superb Epidendrum is at present known only by dried 
Specimens belonging to the Royal Herbarium at Munich. 
The flowers, although faded, still retain a rosy tint; and, 
when fresh, could scarcely have been arrayed in less 
attractive hues than those in which Miss Drake has ven- 
tured to portray them ; but whatever their precise colouring 
may have been, there can be no doubt that the species to 
which they belong may take rank among the very finest 
Plants of its tribe. It was accordingly made a special 
Object in the instructions of the various collectors who 
have been sent from time to time to ransack the forest 
treasures of Oaxaca ; but neither Hartweg nor Ross (who 
closely followed Karwinski’s steps,) succeeded in discov- 
“ring its retreat. Signor Galleotti was more fortunate, 
but the plants which he transmitted to Paris have, it is to 
be feared, entirely perished. But let us hope that as this 
Species, independently of its beauty, belongs to a section 
of the genus which is usually of the easiest growth, re- 
Newed exertions will be made to introduce it into our 
Stoves.” To this we may add our own testimony as to 
the plant being the finest thing of the sort in Mexico, 
Speaking of Sobralia macrantha, of which there is a 
Splendid figure, Mr. Bateman observes, upon the authority 
of Mr. Skinner, that ‘‘in the situations where the plant 
attains the highest degree of luxuriance, its roots are 
tgultently overflowed with water for two or three months 
thecther—in the rainy season, of course. Cultivators will, 
, erefore, do well to bear this singular fact in mind, and 
wih oimate their treatment as closely as circumstances 
are permit. All Sobralias require a season of rest, which 
ey obtained by merely removing them from a warm 
‘umid house to one that is cool and dry.”’ 
Pon Coryanthes macrantha are the following judicious 
arks :—“ In Mr. Rucker’s collection no genus appears 
aceeed more perfectly than Coryanthes, although in 
aad its cultivation is attended with much difficulty and 
i ton; but by noting its peculiarities, such frequent 
‘appointments may, perhaps, be avoided. The supplies 
fox aed moisture require to be most carefully regulated, 
will either be permitted to continue in excess, the plants 
enh perish jon the other hand, a cold or dry 
whieh’ ere is always prejudicial. Suspension in the air, 
48 usually adopted with so much advantage in cases 
rem 
to 
Wi i : 
here the flower-scaes are pendulous, is here unsuitable ; 
and if on a block of wood, is certainly fatal. Another 
danger to weakly plants is their proneness to make a suc- 
cession of attempts to flower, which, although abortive, 
are still persisted in until death ensues from sheer exhaus- 
tion. To meet cases of this description it is advisable to 
remove the flower-stems as they appear, until the plants 
have gathered strength enough to support them without 
risk of injury. C. macrantha is, perhaps, the more robust, 
as it is certainly the most wonderful, species of the genus ; 
it may, indeed, be questioned whether the whole tribe of 
Orchidaceze can offer anything more unaccountable or 
extraordinary than its huge elaborate flowers, which are 
so unlike aught that is ordinarily met with in the vegetable 
world as to be not unfrequently regarded rather as exam- 
ples of the modeller’s skill than of the plastic powers of 
Nature. When flowers of this species were first shown 
idad. lbeit 1 to 
been likened to Onions, Cucumbers, Bamboos, and 
Palms; tongues and mouse-tails ; hooks, whips, and 
straps; swords and needles, &c., &c. Of some the 
leaves are inscribed with Arabic characters, of others the 
roots are cased in coral,’? 11 
We trust on future Occasions to present our readers with 
farther extracts from this most entertaining book, which 
is quite a mine of genuine wit, as well as of science and 
sound practical information. For the present, we must 
conclude with our sincere congratulations to the author 
upon so happy a termination to his labours. 
_| Our examples will be principally drawn from South America, 
for owing to the much greater conformity in the blossoms of the 
Orchidaceze of the Old World, the cases in which strange figures 
oat animal likenesses occur, are not nearly so nume; 
the new. i 
to the natives of Tri the 
wonders of a tropical Flora—they would not be persuaded 
that no imposition was intended; even a sight of the plant 
itself flourishing in the botanic garden scarcely removed 
their suspicions.” 
Those who are familiar with the author’s lively style 
will recognise in the following clever sketch of the oddity 
of Orchidacez even more than his usual talent for popular 
description. We only wish we could add to the extract a 
charming device, invented by Lady Grey of Groby, to 
illustrate their fantastical peculiarities :— 
“« But will the rarity of Orchidacez, or the care! and at- 
tention they require, suffice to explain the strange power 
of fascination which they are felt to possess ? Or isit to be 
accounted for by the beauty, the fragrance, or the dura- 
bility of their flowers? or by the presence of all these 
qualities combined? No: other plants might be men- 
tioned as rare, and as difficult of culture, and scarcely 
inferior to them in personal charms, and yet they could 
never boast of the train of admirers that has lately been 
attracted round these mighty vegetable enchanters. In 
what, then, does the secret of their spell consist? We 
have sought for it in vain in every source from which 
floral pleasure ordinarily'springs, in all that constitutes the 
charm of other plants! Neither can the question be dis- 
posed of by looking merely to the end for which Orchi- 
daceze were designed, and which we believe to have been 
solely to affordus highand innocent enjoyment; butit is the 
means to that end,—the secret of that power which we are 
now so anxious to arriveat. Something it must clearly be 
that forms not only the pride of Orchidacez, but which at 
once distinguishes them from every other tribe—and where 
is a character so marked and so peculiar to be found ? 
Where but in the marvellous structure, the grotesque 
conformation, ‘and imitative character of their flowers ? 
Yes ; here we have that which is more than sufficient to 
explain all the wonder and admiration they have excited, 
and here, then, we may safely affirm the seat of their 
magic influence resides. It now, therefore, only remains 
for us to prove that the attributes with which we have 
invested them, and from which we believe their interes 
to be derived, are neither idly nor fancifully ascribed to 
them; and this, we apprehend, we shall have but little 
difficulty in effecting. 
« Accustomed as we are to look upon the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms as altogether distinct, our astonish- 
ment may be well awakened, when we see the various 
forms of the one appropriated by the flowers of the other, 
and yet such encroachments are buta part of the liberties 
which these Orchidacez are perpetually taking ; for, as if 
it were too simple a matter to imitate the works of Nature 
only, they mimic, absolutely mimic, the productions of 
Art! But not contented to rest even here, they display a 
restless faculty of invention fully equal to their powers of 
imitation, and after having, like Shakspere, ‘exhausted 
worlds,’ like him, too, they seem to have ‘imagined 
new ;’ and thus we find their flowers exhibiting a variety 
of strange and unearthly objects, such as bear no resem- 
blance to created things, nor yet to any of the works of 
man. Such a host of examples of their freaks in all 
these departments are on record that we scarcely know 
where to commence our selection. Perhaps, however, 
it may be well to take first a few of the more prominent 
cases in which they have adopted as their models sundry 
kinds of insects, birds, beasts, fishes, and reptiles... We 
will begin, then, with the insects, not only because they 
are the class most frequently imitated, but because we may 
draw a portion of our illustrations from the meadows and 
pastures of our own country, where, at the proper season, 
flies, bees, drones, and spiders,” may be seen, which really 
present us with very striking likenesses of the originals, 
From the Tropics we have grasshoppers, musquitoes, 
dragon-flies, moths, &c., &c.,° in the greatest variety, and 
we have also the gorgeous vegetable butterfly of Trinidad, 
whose blossoms, poised at the extremity of their long 
elastic scapes, wanton gaily in the wind, and seem impa- 
tient of that fixture by which they are differenced in kind 
from the flower-shaped Psyche, that flutters with free 
wing above them.’’4 € come next to the birds, from 
which the Orchidacez borrowed their swans, eagles, doves, 
and pelicans ;> to say nothing of a large assortment 
of wings, feathers, beaks, and bills.6 From the 
beasts they have not copied quite so freely as from 
the birds, yet resemblances may be traced to 
i leopards, lynxes, bulls, rams, and monkeys, 
to man himself. In the catalogue of 
reptiles we find an endless variety of snakes, lizards, toads, 
and frogs.® Of shells, likewise, there are many kinds.? 
Then follows a mixed multitude of masks, cowls, hoods, 
caps, and helmets ; swords, spurs, crests, pikes, arrows, 
and lances; whiskers, eyelashes, beards, bristles, tails, 
horns, and teeth; combs, slippers, buckets, trowels, 
pouches, saddles, &c., &e.° Nor is this mimicking 
ropensity confined to the flowers alone, being equally 
conspicuous in their leaves and pseudo-bulbs, which have 
of Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting. It is figured 
Phalzenopsis and others of its tribe are guilty, quotes the opinion 
of a contemporary botanist, who seems to be convinced that all 
suchlike Orchidaceze spring ‘ vel ex putridis quorundam anima~ 
lium cadaveribus in quibus vis quedam seminalis latet vel ex ip- 
sis animalium seminibusquz in montibus,vel pratiscoeunt; atque 
pro cjus argumento dicitin Satyricrum (meaning all Orchidaceze) 
floribus detegi speciem istius animalis ex cojus semine in terra 
putrefacto hoc Satyrium excrevit vel istius insecti quod pleram- 
que ex cadavere cujusdam animalis prodit.’—Rumph. Herb. 
Amb. vi. 98. 
2 E.g., fliesin Ophrys muscifera; bees in O. apifera; dronesin O. 
facifera; spiders in O. aranifera. A remarkable circumstance con- 
nected with O. muscifera has twice occurred in the garden of the 
Rev. T. Butt, of Trentham, whose devotion to the Orchidacez of 
Europe and North America is fully equal to that of some of his 
contemporaries for those of the Torrid Zone. The flowers of O. 
muscifera bear, it is well ki 
r days together on a blossom of the unconscious plant, no 
doubt under the impression that it was enjoying the society of 
one of its own kind. For several summers afterwards, although 
the Orchis continued to flower, the: fly was nowhere to be seen; 
last year, however, it was again observed at its post, where it 
remained as before for several days in succession. 
8 The columns of many of the Catasetums and other genera 
make excellent ‘ Grasshoppers.” Musquitoes are 
Trichoceros antennifera or ‘ Flor de Mosquito” of the Pernvians; 
“Dragon flies,” by Renanthera arachnites ; ‘‘ Moths,” by Phale- 
nopsis amabilis, &c. &c. Insecteli are al i 
n the flowers of Restrepia 
Mexican Epidendrum, E. antenniferum (Lind]. MSS.), discovered 
by Mr. Henchman; the genera Myanthas of Lindley, and Myox~ 
anthus of Poeppig and Endlicher (though now abolished), were 
also founded, as their names imply, on the resemblance of their 
flowers to different kinds of flies. 
4 Coleridge’s ‘Aids to Reflection.” The Butterfly plant of 
Trinidad is the now well-known Oncidium papilio; it had not 
flowered in this country at the time the “‘ Aids to Reflection” 
were written, otherwise we might have supposed it to have been 
in the eye of the ‘ Ancient Mariner’? when he penned the 
passage we have quoted. 
2 s are found in both the species of Cycnoches, doves 
in Peristeria elata, Pelicans in the unintroduced Mexican 
Cypripedium, (C. Irapeeanum, La Llave) which from the great 
resemblance of its flowers to the bird of that name, is styled by 
the natives ** Flor de Pelicano.’’ As to the Eagles, they have not 
come under the coguizance of any professed botanist. But a 
fine Orchidacea, which has been imported from Jamaica by that 
zealous collector, Mr. Horsfall of Liverpool, is always spoken of 
as the “spread eagle” by the inhabitants of that island. Unfor- 
tunately the plant has hitherto refused to flower, and therefore 
wehavehad no opportunity of judging how far it deserves this title, 
6 The column in most Orchidaceous plants: has its wings and 
beak infinitely diversified in structure. Feathers are not so 
plentiful, but they may be seenin great beauty in the various 
species of Ornithocephalus, all of which are quite birds in minia- 
ture. Psi aT atratum, an uni Mexican plant, 
as a black tongue like a parrot, and La Llave named it accord- 
ngly 
7 ‘The skins of the tiger and theleopard are rivalled by the 
resemblance toa rattle-snake’s tail. dL 
thallis saurocephalus and Epidendrum lacertinum, and frogs in 
Epidendrum raniferum. - 
° Zygopetatum cochleare, Epidendrum cochleatum, and Pholi~ 
dota ‘conechoidea, afford as pretty specimens as any; Pleuro- 
thallis chitonoides is also a little gem of its kind. v 
10 The genera Coryanthes, Corycium, Bonatea, Pelexia, &c,, 
all derive their names from caps and helmets, which they yield 
For hideous masks we must look to Mormades 
atroparpuream; for cowls to Monachanthus (now Catasetum) 
discolor and viridis; swords and pikes and other weapons of war 
are supplied in quantities innumerable by the various and com- 
plicated forms of the lip. Epidendrum selligerum, and many 
more, are provided with good saddles, anda host of Saccolabia 
N Onions in Oncidium cebolleta; Cucumbers in Dendrobium 
rothallis strupifolia; needles in Epidendrum aciculare 
i Phe name of Grammatophyllum scriptym proclaims its 
bss ) 3 Corallorhiza also, 
(somewh: 
ry 
nurseries, and in every instance the plants thus treated appear in 
better health and vigour than those grown in pots. Therefore what 
ing out in practice, haye few claims 
lower-gardening, and I have no 
t it one gardener in each county take up the subject, 
and the tide would soon flow into the right channel, in a few years, 
