EPIDENDRUM. HI 



E. phceniceum. 



Encyclium. Pseudo-bulbs sub-rotund, ovate, dipliyllous. Leaves linear- 

 oblong, erect, leatbery, 6 — 9 inches long Peduncles paniculate, 2 — 3 

 feet high. Flowers, IJ — 2 inches in diameter; sepals and petals 

 sub-equal, obovate-lanceolate, deep bronze-purple shaded with brown and 

 with a pale green apiculus ; lip three-lobed, lateral lobes oblong, erect, 

 recurved at apex, the middle lobe sub-rotund, wavy, emarginate, rose purple 

 veined with deep crimson-purple ; calli two. Column triquetral, auricled, 

 rose-purple and white. 



Epidendrum phceniceum, Lindl. Sert. Orch. t. 46 (1838). Id. Bot. Reg. 1841, 

 misc. No. 120. Id. Fol. Orch. Ep. No. 78. Paxt. Mag. Bot. IX. p. 97. Van 

 Houtte, Fl. dcs Serves, 11. 1846, t. 8, and IV. t. 306 (vanillosum). 



Introduced from Cuba, in 1840, by Messrs. Loddiges, in vt^hose 

 nursery at Hackney it flowered for the first time in this country in 

 the spring of the following year. Although one of the most striking 

 of Epidendrums as regards colour, it is now but rarely if ever seen 

 in the orchid houses of Europe, owing to its inhabiting an island that 

 affords but few orchids worthy of cultivation, and thence the importation 

 of this species has become neglected, 



E. polybulbon. 



Encyclium. A dwarf creeping plant. Rhizome somewhat wiry, branched 

 and emitting numerous short thread-like roots. Pseudo-bulbs produced 

 from the rhizome at intervals of about an inch, ovoid, | inch long, sheathed 

 at the base by brown scales, diphyllous. Leaves ovate-oblong, obtuse, 

 emarginate, 1 — 1| inches long. Peduncles issuing from a compressed 

 sheathing bract, slender, as long as the leaves, one flowered. Flowers 

 an inch in diameter ; sepals and petals spreading, linear, acute, the petals 

 the narrowest, in one form tawny yellow with a brown median area, in 

 another light yellow ; lip white with a short claw and sub-quadrate blade 

 which has a depressed median line. Column purplish brown, with two 

 cirri at the apex, 



Epidendrum polybulbon, Swartz, Prod. p. 124 (1788). Id. Fl. Ind. occid. III. p 

 1491. Hook. Exot. Fl. II. t. 112. Dinema polybulbon, Lindl. Gen. et Sp Orch n 

 111 (1831). Bot. Mag. t. 4067. ' ^' 



A native of the West Indies and Mexico that became known to 

 science more than a century ago, but does not appear to have been 

 introduced into British gardens till 1841 — 2, when plants were 

 presented by Mr. Horsfall, of Liverpool, to the Botanic Garden of 

 that town. It is a dwarf, floriferous, and by no means inattractive 

 species, 



E. prismatocarpum. 



Encyclium. Pseudo-bulbs ovoid, elongated, tapering upwards, 4 5 



