134 OKNITIIOCEPIIALU.S. 



way likely to uttract notice save by the singularity of its form; and 

 i>. Oberonia was in the late Mr, Wilson Saunder's collection at 

 IJeigate in 18G9.* 



The g-enus was founded by Sir William Hooker on 0. gladiatus, 

 a native of Trinidad, wliich was intro(hiced to the Botanic Garden 

 at Glasgow in 1824 ;"|" the remarkable form of the column and its 

 appendages suggesting the name which is compounded of opvig 

 i)f)i-i(h>ij and Ki:(paXi)., literally "a bird's head." 



Ornithocephalus grandiflorus. 



Leaves narrowly dbLni-', dlitusc, 4 — G inches lon.u, 4 — G on one i^-mwili, 

 in the axis of which tlie small psemlo-ljulli is foniu'd. Peilunclo 

 from the axil of the uiipermost k'af, longer than the leaves, arching, 

 racemose, many flnweretl ; hmcts small, subulate, acute. Flowers | inch 

 in diameter ; sepals and ]ietals white Avith a hright green s])ot at the 

 liase, snburliicular, cniicave, the lateral sepals the smallest and reflexed ; 

 lip sul)()rliiculai', saccate and strongly keeled beneath, on the short claw 

 of which is a horse-shoe shaped green callus with a cvisi)ed fandike 

 prolongation in front. Colunni white, Ijent like a swan's neck, the 

 rostellum of which is produce(l into a threaddike appendage pai'allel 

 with the callus of the lij) as far as its anterior margin, and then bent 

 u})wards and inwards, terminating in a small yellow gland. 



Ornithocephahis grandiRorus, Liiidl. in Ann. Soc. Nat. Hist. IV. (1840), j). 383. 

 Rchb. in Walp. Ann. VI. p. 493. Id. in Gard. Chron. XVIII. (1882), p. 168. 

 -Dclg. hort. 1884, p. 89. 



This is the handsomest species yet known in the genus, and 

 worthy of a place in the most select collections of orchids. It 

 was originally discovered by Gardner on the Organ Mountains in 

 southern Brazil in 18o7, and was described by Dr. Lindley shortly 

 afterwards from Gardner's herbarium specimen in the periodical 

 quoted above. Nothing more appears to have been seen of it till 

 1882, when fresh specimens for identification were sent to Professor 

 Keichenbach by M. Witte, curator of the University Botanic Garden 

 at Leyden, and about the savno time from M. Liiddemann at Paris; 

 two years later it was figured in Li Behjique Uorticole, and de- 

 scribed by M. Morren from a plant in the Botanic Garden at Brussels. 

 A recent importation has caused it to become well known in British 

 gardens, where it flowers in May and June. 



* Gard. Chron. 1869, p. 988. 

 t Probably through Sir Ralph Woodford, the Governor. 



