CIRRHOPETALUM. 99 



Mr. Hemsley enumerates seventeen species of Cirrhopetalum that 

 have been at one time or other introduced into European gardens 

 up to 1882,* and two or three others have been added since; 

 but of all these it is doubtful whether half-a-dozen are to be 

 found in any one orchid collection at the present time. Neverthe- 

 less, a complete collection of Cirrhopetala in a living state would 

 meet one of the desiderata of science at the present time. 



Among the most obvious characteristics by which the Cirrhopetala 

 may be recognised, are their small monophyllous pseudo-bulbs produced 

 from a scaly creeping rhizome ; in this respect, however, they agree with 

 many Bulbophyls ; also their umbellate inflorescence, or rather racemes, 

 reduced to an umbel which is frequently one-sidecl ; and their elongated 

 parallel lateral sepals, which in one species, Cirrhopetalum Medusae, are 

 enormously prolonged. These parallel sepals, owing to a peculiar twist 

 at their base, are brought into the same plane with their inner edges, 

 meeting together like the wings of some insects. 



Cirrhopetalum is from icippog (kirrhos), "yellowish/' and TreTaXov 

 (petalon), " a leaf/' The name was selected by Dr. Lindley on 

 account of the prevailing yellow colour in the sepals of all the 

 species known to him. The cultural requirements are the same as 

 for Bulbophyllum. 



Cirrhopetalum chinense. 



Pseudo-bulbs somewhat distantly placed on the scaly creeping rhizoine, 

 small, oval-oblong, an inch long, invested with scarious sheaths. Leaves 

 narrowly lanceolate, 4 — 5 inches long, emargmate or obliquely two-lobed 

 at apex. Scapes as long as the leaves, bearing at their summit a 

 many-flowered umbel. Dorsal sepal helniet-shaped, pale yellow at the 

 base, stained with purple at the apex ; lateral sepals lanceolate, pale 

 fawn-yellow ; petals oblong, obtuse, apiculate, coloured like the dorsal 

 sepal; lip small, fleshy, tongue-shaped, deep purple. 



Cirrhopetalum chinense, Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1842, misc. 29. Id. 1843, t. 49. 

 A curious species, introduced from China by Messrs. Loddiges 

 about the year 1842. Dr. Lindley appended the following note to 

 his description of it : — 



" There is no longer any occasion for speculative minds to occupy 

 themselves with the investigation of the cause that may have led the 

 Chinese to invent strange figures of men and women with their chins 

 perpetually in motion, for here is the explanation of it. We have 

 here a plant from China, one of whose lobes is exactly like a tongue 

 and chin which are so unstable as to be in a state of continual 



* Gard. Chron. XVIII. (1882), pp. 172, 365. 



