58 ZYGOPETAtiUM. 



varieties, of which the habitat of one only appears to be certainly 

 known, may thence be geographical forms, but more definite in- 

 formation respecting the precise localities in which the type as well 

 as its varieties occur, is much required. 



Zi/gopetalmn Mackayi has always been in high repute among 

 cultivators on account of the pleasant perfume of its flowers which 

 generally appear in the autumn and winter months, and on account 

 of the facility with which it adapts itself to the artificial conditions 

 of the glass-houses of Europe, so much so that it is one of the 

 few orchids met with in gardens where but few others are 

 cultivated. 



Z. marginatum. 



Leaves radical, in tufts of fours and fives, oblanceolate, acute, 



6 — 12 inches long. Peduncles 4 — -5 inches long, one-flowered ; bracts 



small and sheathing. Flowers 2 — 2^- inches across verticallj^, very 



fragrant ; sepals and petals yellowish white, ovate-lanceolate, acute, the 



lateral sepals narrower and the petals broader than the dorsal sepal ; 



lip sub-orbicular when spread out, obscurely three-lobed, the side lobes 



incurved towards the column, yellowish white ; the front lobe slightly 



concave, retuse or emarginate, white striated with violet-purple on the 



disk and with a broad margin of rose — sometimes inauve-purple ; crest 



prominent, sub-quadrate, strongly ridged and furrowed. Column short, 



semi-terete, Avhite. 



Zygopetalum marginatum, Rchb. in Walp. Ann. VI. p. 654 (1863). Warrea 

 marginata, Rchb. in Bot. Zcit. X. (1852). p. 636. W. quadrata, Lindl. in Gard. 

 Chron. 1853, p. 647. Bot. Maq. t. 4766. Warscewiczella marginata, Rchb. Xen. 

 Orch. 1. p. 61, t. 23, fig. 2. Linden's Pcsc. t. 6. W. velata, Rchb. Xen. Orch. I. 

 p. 60 (1854), fig. 1. Batem. in Bot. Mag. t. 5582. Zygopetalum velatum, Rchb. 

 in AValp. Ann. VI. p. 655. 



The origin of this species is obscure. Reichenbach states that it 



first appeared in M. Linden's horticultural establishment at Brussels, 



whence it became distributed among several European gardens ; and 



in Pescatorea the merit of introducing it is assigned to Linden, but 



no information is given as to date, although New Granada is stated 



to be its native country. The first recorded instance of its flowering 



in England was in Jackson's nursery at Kingston, in 1863 ; the 



plant was supposed to have been collected by Warscewicz in Central 



America. This collector had given Reichenbach a sketch and 



herbarium specimen of a Warscewiczella without indicating any 



locality, and which he afterwards named W. velata. Some years 



later a VYarscewiczella was collected in New Granada by Blunt for 



