no KPIOKNDRUM. 



in (liiUiK'ter, variable in colour, usually pale rose or lilac, sometimes 



passing into white ; sepals olilong-spathulate ; petals filiform ; lip 



quadripartite, the two basal lobes broadly obovate, the anterior two 



broadly linear, divergent ; calli two, sometimes yellow, sometimes white, 



in front of which are three small raised lines. 



Epidendrum paniculatum, Ruiz et Pax. Flor. Peruv. et Chil. p. 243 (1794). 

 Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 108 (1831). Id. Fol. Orch. Ep. No. 174 (1853). 

 Bot. Mag. t. 5731. Illus. hort. N.s. t. 211. E. falsiloquum, Rchb. in Gard. 

 Chron. XXIII. (1885), p. 566. 



One of the first epiphytal orchids known to science, and one of 



the most widely distributed of the genus. It was discovered more 



than a century ago by the Spanish botanists Ruiz and Pavon, 



near Huayaquil (Guayaquil?) in Peru, and has since been gathered 



by various collectors in many localities in tropical South America 



widely remote from each other, but always at a considerable elevation 



on the Cordilleras from Bolivia northwards to Venezuela. As a 



species it is very variable, due doubtless to diversity of station and 



its wide distribution, the variability being observable chiefly in the 



height of the stems, the form and size of the leaves, and in the 



colour of the flowers ; the date of its first introduction does not 



appear to have been recorded. 



E. patens. 



EuBPiDENDRUM. Stems cylindric, as thick as an ordinary writing- 

 pencil, 1 — 3 feet high, jointed at intervals of 1 — 2 inches, leafy at 

 top only. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, leathery, 4 — 6 inches long. Pedun- 

 cles pendulous, usually racemose but sometimes branched at the base, 

 many flowered. Flowers 1| inches in diameter, yellowish green when 

 first expanded, changing to white with age ; sepals and petals sub- 

 equal, oblong, acute with revolute margins ; lip three-lobed, the lobes 

 nearly equal, the lateral two roundish, the intermediate one bifid ; 

 calli two. Column clavate 



Epidendrum patens, Swartz, Fl. Ind. occ. III. p. 1495. Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. 

 p. 108 (1831). Id. Fol. Orch. Ep. No. 235 (1853). Bot. Mag. t. 3800 (1841). 



Native of Jamaica, Trinidad, and other West India islands, whence 



it is occasionally imported with other orchids; it is also said to have 



been gathered by the late Mr. G. Ure Skinner,, in Guatemala. 



Although not a particularly handsome species, it scarcely deserves 



Dr. Lindley's somewhat disparaging description ; its long pendulous 



racemes resemble on superficial view those of a Dendrobium of 



the sub-section Calostachyece {D. densijlorum , &c.), a character by 



which it may be easily recognised among the cultivated Epidendra, 



