108 MILTONIA. 



M. spectabilis. 



Rliizoine .stoutisli, creeping, scaly, as thick as a goose-quill. Pseudo- 

 bulljs produced from the rhizome at short intervals, ovate-oblong, com- 

 pressed, 3—4 inrhes long, diphyllous. Leaves linear-ligulate, 4 — 6 inches 

 long, both pseudo-ljulbs and leaves usually of an ochreous yellow 

 hue. Scapes as long as the pseudo-bullts and leaves, sheathed by 

 alternate, imbricating ancipitous bracts, and a larger one embracing the 

 ovary, one flowered. Flowers nearly Hat, 3 inches iir diameter ; sepals 

 and petals lanceolate-oblong, acute, the petals a little the broadest, white 

 or cream colour, sometimes tinged with rose towards the base ; lip large, 

 spreading, obovate-or])ic\dar, vinous purple with 6 — 8 longitudinal veins 

 of a deeper shade, the margin white or pale rose ; crest tri-lamellate, 

 the lamellcE terminating in small erect plates, usually yellow. Column 

 wings sub-triangular, rose-purple. 



Miltonia spectabilis, Liudl. in Bot. Keg. sub. t. 1976 (1837). Id. t. 1992. Id. 

 1845, sub. t. 8. Id. Fol. Orcli. Milt. No. I. Bot. Mag. t. 4206. Paxt. Mag. Bot. 

 VII. i«. 97. Rchb. Xen. Orch. I. ).. 129. Illus. hort. VL t. 216. The Garden, 

 XXXI. (1887), t. 593. Macrochilus Fryanus, Kuovvles and Westc. Fl. Cab. II. t. 45 

 (1837). Oncidium spectabile, Rchb. in "Walp. Ann. VII. p. 759 (1863). 



var . — Moreliana. 



Flowers usually larger than the type and very distinct in colour ; 

 sepals and petals plum-purple ; lip bright rose-purple with deeper veins 

 and reticulations. 



M. spectabilis Moreliana, Henfrey's Gard. Mag. Bot. III. p. 41, with fig. Van 



Houtte's Fl. ues Serves, X. t. 1008. De Pnydt, Les Orch. t. 27. Lindenia, III. 



t. 105. Williams' Orch. Alb. VIII. t. 364. M. Moreliana, Warner's Sel. Orch. I. 



t. 32. Fl. Mag. n..s. ///. t. 143. Jennings' Orch. t. 37. M. spectabilis purpureo- 



violacea, Bot. Mag. t. 4425. 



SUb.-vars. (distinguished by colour only). — hicolor, flowers white with a 



large plum-purple blotch at the base of the lip ; lineata {Linrlenia, II. 



t. 62), Hp with 7 — 9 purple lines radiating from a blotch of the same 



colour at the base to the margin ; radians (Rchb. Xen. Orch. I. 



p. 130. Williams' Orch. Alb. IV. t. 164), flowers white with six 



club-shaped purple rays on the disk of the lip ; rosea {IHus. hort. 



1867, t. 524), flowers light rose with purple longitudinal lines on the 



lip; virginalis (Illus. hort. 1869, t. 573), flowers white with a broad 



wedge-shaped purple blotch at the base of the lip. 



MiUonia spectabilis, as already stated, is the species on which the 



genus was founded and, with the exception of M. flavescens, which 



previous to the introduction of M. spectabilis had been referred to 



Cyrtochilum and M. Russellianum, which had been figured and 



described as an Oncidium, it is one that has been longest known 



to science and to horticulture, and yet up to the present time its 



precise habitat is known only to the orchid collectors at Rio de 



Janeiro. Lindley indeed states that it was gathered by Weddell 



