PLEUROTHALLIS. 



Introduced by us from New Grauada iu 1885. As may be 

 gathered from the above description, the flowers are large for the 

 genus and handsomely coloured ; the species is therefore worthy 

 of a place in every representative collection of orchids. ^^ A curious 

 feature in the plant is to be seen in the leaf, which has a sharp twist 

 at the base, and by which the flower hangs pendulous beneath it." 



P. Roezlii. 



Stems slender, erect, 3—6 inches high, clothed with pale brown, 

 scarious sheaths. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, emarginate or acute, 5 — 8 

 inches long, very leathery, light grass-green. Peduncles longer than 

 the leaves, dull purple, with 2 — 3 joints, at each of which is a 

 whitish, sheathing, closely appressed, membraneous bract, and a similar 

 one at the base of each pedicel ; racemes nodding, 5 — 9 or more 

 floAvered. Flowers pendulous, partially expanding, deep sanguineous 

 purple ; sepals 1 ^ inches long, the upper one elliptic-oblong, concave, 

 keeled behind ; the lateral two connate into an oval blade with two 

 keels beneath ; petals like the upper sepal but smaller ; lip tongue- 

 shaped, the margins of the basal half inflexed, the distal half 

 pubescent above. Column white. 



Pleurothallis Roezlii, Rchb. in Linnaea XLI. p. 13 (1877). Godefroy's Orchido- 

 pMle, 1888, p. 80. P. laurifolia, Rchb. in Xen. Orch. II. p. 31 (1862), not 

 Humbt. et Kunth. 



According to the Orchidophile, this plant was discovered by 

 Roezl * in the vicinity of Sonson, situate at a considerable eleva- 

 tion on the western slopes of the central Cordillera of New 

 Granada. As it is said to have been found growing under the 

 same conditions as Masdevallia macrura, also one of M, Eoezl's 

 discoveries, that is to say, '' on the moss-covered blocks of granite 

 that are found scattered over the ground around the town," it 

 may be assumed to have been first detected at the same date as 

 the discovery of that plant^ or 1874, It was introduced into France 

 by M. Kienast-Zdlly, a zealous orchid amateur of Zurich^ and was 

 exhibited by M. Godefroy, of Argenteuil, near Paris, at one of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society^s meetings in March, 1885, when it 

 became known to British cultivators for the first time. The above 

 description was taken from a plant in the collection of Sir Trevor 

 Lawrence, Bart., at Burford Lodge, near Dorking. The flowers of 

 this Pleurothallis are the most richly coloured yet seen in the genus. 



* The only information given in Linntea, respecting the discovery of the plant, is 

 contained in the following brief sentence : — " Hie vir (Koezl) plantas vivas collegit (pi;e 

 niiserime perierunt." 



