70 



CALANTHE. 



been especially mentioned. Over so vast a range it is found to be 

 remarkably constant, but some geographical forms have been recognised 

 that deviate from the Australian type, although in very trivial characters 

 that may be disregarded without inconvenience ; the two varieties 

 described above are the most recent that have been brought under 

 notice. The specific name veratrifolium was given to this orchid 

 from the resemblance of its foliage to that of Veratrum nigrum, a 

 Liliaceous hardy plant, native of central Europe, and frequently seen 

 in the herbaceous borders of old English gardens. 



C. vestita. 



Pseudo-bulbs sub-conical, bluntly angulate, 3| — 5 inches long, pale 



greenish grey striated. Leaves appearing after the flowers, broadly 



lanceolate, acuminate, 18 — 24 or more inches long, narrowed below into 



a channelled and winged petiole and prominently ribbed beneath. Scapes 



sub-erect or nodding, 24 — 3G inches long, very hairy, racemose from near 



the base, many flowered ; bracts large and conspicuous, ovate lanceolate 



acuminate, nearly as long as the stalked ovaries. Flowers 2 — 3 inches 



across vertically, milk-white Avith a yellow striated blotch on the lip 



immediately in front of the column ; sepals and petals spreading, the 



former oval-oblong, apiculate, the latter obovate-oblong, obtuse ; lip flat, 



three-lobed, the side lobes obliquely oblong, obtuse, the front lobe broadly 



obcordate with a deep cleft in the apical margin ; spur slender, decurved, 



greenish. 



Calanthe vestita, Wall. LinJl. Gen. et Sp. Orcli. p. 250 (1832). Fol. Orch. Cal. 

 No. 35. Bot. Mag. t. 4671. Van Houtte's Fl. des Serves, VIIT. t. 816 (copied from 

 Bot. ilag.) Warner's Scl. Orch. I. t. 29. Cytheris GrifRthii, Wight, ic. pi. Ind. or. 

 t. 1751. Preptanthe vestita, Rchb. in Bot. Zeit, 1853, p. 493. 



^uh-YBXQ.—gigantea (Williams' Ordt. Alb. V. t. 211. Revue de Vliort Beige, 

 1889, p. 121, grandiflora), plant and flowers larger in all their parts, the 

 spot on the lip orange-red ; rubro-oculata (Paxt. Mag. Bot. XVI. p. 

 129. Kegel's Gartenli. 1873, t. 751.), the blotch on the disk of the 

 lip red-purple. 



var. — Regnieri. 



Pseudo-bulbs more elongated and with a transverse depression or neck a 



little above the middle. Scapes erect, the flowers smaller than in the type, 



with the lip less deeply lobed, which is rose colour, with a crimson-purple 



blotch at the base that is also spread over the claw and part of the column. 



C. vestita Regnieri, supra. C. Regnien, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. XIX. (1883). p. 

 274. The Garden, XXIV. (1883), t. 397. 



SUb.-Vars. — Sander's, rosy carmine, deeper in colour than Calanthe 

 VeitcMi; Stevens', white with a small rose-coloured blotch on the 

 disk of the lip; Wmimns' {Orch. Alb. III. t. 134), the petals 



