88 EFIDENDRUM. 



by Wagener and Purdie near Caracas, and by Mr. G. Ure Skinner 

 in Guatemala, growing in company witb the beautiful Cattleya that 

 bears his name ; it has also been received from Mexico, Panama, 

 and New Granada, and quite recently the very distinct variety 

 described above under the name of Randianum, which was first 

 discovered at Teffe, on the south bank of the Amazon, 1,500 miles 

 above Para, has since been brought from Itaituba, near the Tapejos 

 Falls, upwards of 1,000 miles distant from Teffe.* E. atropxirpureum 

 was first introduced by Mr. Horsfall, of Liverpool, in whose collection 

 it flowered in 1856. The variety roseum was introduced by Mr. G. 

 Ure Skinner from Guatemala, where the flower is knovvn among the 

 natives by the name of Boca del Dragon or " Dragon's Mouth." 

 The variety Randianum was sent by Mr. E. S. Rand, of Para, to 

 the Compagnie Oontinentale d'horticulture de Bruxelles in 1885. 



E. aurantiacum. 



AuLiZEUM. Stems clavate, attenuated below, 10 — 12 inches long, 

 diphyllous. Leaves linear-oblong, acute, 4 — 6 inches long, very leathery. 

 Peduncles issuing from a pale membraneous spathe, shorter than the 

 leaves, 6 — 12 flowered. Flowers 1| inches in diameter, orange-red; 

 sepals and petals similar and sub-equal, lanceolate, acute ; lip ovate, 

 convolute over the column at the base, reflexed at the apex. Column 

 pale greenish yellow. 



Epidendrum aurantiacum, Batem. in Bot. Reg. 1838, misc. 11. Id. Orch. Mex. 



et Guat. t. 12 (1843). Lindl. Foi. Orch. Ep. No. 1 (1853). Kegel's Gartenfl. 



(1856), t. 158. E. aureum, Lindl. fide Hemsley in Gard. Chron. XX. (1883), p. 42. 



Introduced in 1835 by Mr. G. Ure Skinner, from Guatemala, 

 where it is said to be plentiful in some localities, sometimes growing 

 on exposed rocks where it is subject to great extremes of heat and 

 cold. It was also detected by Karwinsky and other travellers in 

 Mexico, growing on trees, especially on Taxodium mexicanwn, as well 

 as on bare exposed rocks. The plant has altogether the habit of a 

 Cattleya, with which also it agrees in the lip being united to the 

 base of the column only and not adnate to it. Except its smaller 

 flowers it possesses scarcely any character to distinguish it from 

 Cattleya.t 



* E. S. Rand in lit. 



f Ejndcndruvi aurantiacum characteres potius Cattleyse ostendit a qua vix nisi floribus 

 minoribus distingnitur (Benfh. ct Hook. Gen. Plant. III. p. 529), especially Cattleya Skinneri, 

 from which it can scarcely be distinguished when not in flower. It has been found growing 

 with this Cattleya upon the stem of the same tree, and among one of our importations of C. 

 Skinneri many years ago was a plant that bore strong traces of being a natural hybrid between 

 that species and E. aurantiacum.. See Cattleya ( Epicattleya^ guatemalensis X, Part II. p. 86. 



