100 EPIDENDRUM. 



neighbourhood of Orizaba, for Mr. Barker, of Birmingham, in whose 

 collection at Springfield it flowered in 1839 ; it was also sent about the 

 same time to the Woburn collection by Mr. Parkinson, Her Majesty's 

 Consul-General in Mexico. The plants sent home by these collectors 

 received different names at the hands of the orchid authorities of that 

 time; flartweg's specimens were named Epidendrnm fahatum by 

 Dr. Lindley ; the Woburn plant was named after Mr. Parkinson by 

 Sir William Hooker, and Mr. Barker's plant was named E. aloifulium 

 by Mr. Bateman. This is to be regretted, for although the plant 

 is not of any special horticultural interest, it is still met with in 

 different collections under all these names. The species is, however, 

 a variable one owing to diversity of station throughout its somewhat 

 extensive distribution. It always grows in an inverted position, 

 whether on the trunks of trees or on bare rocks, where it attains 

 much smaller dimensions, and where it is often exposed to great 

 extremes of temperature and to several months of drought. 



E. fragrans. 



AuLizEUii. Rhizome stoutish, ligneous. Stems narrowly fusiform, 



compressed, 3 —4 inches high, mono-diphyllous. Leaves lanceolate, 



acute, 8 — 12 inches long. Peduncles short, few flowered. Flowers 



inverted, 2 inches in diameter, very fragrant ; sepals and petals reflexed, 



cream-white, the former ovate-lanceolate, green behind, the latter oval and 



of the same colour on both sides ; lip sub-orbicular, apieulate, concave, 



with a fleshy callus at the base, white streaked with purple. Column 



greenish white. 



Epi.lendrnm fracrrans, Swartz. Fl. Iiid. occ. Til. p. 1487. Bnt. Mag. t. 1669 

 (1814). Linil. Fol. Oich. Ep. No. 1-22. E. £emulum, Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 1898 

 (1836). E. cochleatum, Bot. Mag. t. 1S2. 



One of the most widely distributed of all the Epidendrums; it is 



common in Dominica, Jamaica, and other West Indian Islands ; it 



occurs in British, French, and Dutch Guiana, in Northern Brazil 



and Venezuela; it has also been reported fi'om Guatemala. Over 



so large an area the plant varies considerably in habit and aspect 



according to locality and station. A variety called by Dr. 



Lindley megalanihum, " has flowers 4 inches in diameter with vivid 



stripes of purple-crimson on the lip."* Epidendrum fragrans flowered 



at Kew for the first time in this country in 1778, whither it had 



been sent by Mr. Hinton East. Some years later plants were pre- 



* Fol. Orch. Ep. No. 122. 



