70 ACACALLIS. 



large auricles of the column may warrant its retention as a distinct 

 genus.* 



Acacallis cyanea. 



Rhizoine creeping, as thick as a goose-quill. Pseudo-bulbs produced 



at intervals of 1 — 2 inches, ovoid, much compressed, 1| — 2 inches 



long, mono-diphyllous. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute, 4 — 6 inches 



long, narrowed at the base into a short petiole. Scapes longer than 



the leaves, slender, purplish, racemose, 3 — 7 flowered. Flowers 2 — 2| 



inches in diameter; sepals and petals light mauve suffused with white, 



the sepals broadly oval, obscurely keeled behind ; the petals a little 



broader, sub-orbicular, apiculate ; lip with a somewhat long and narrow 



fringed claw and reniform limb that is rose-purple, concave, undulate 



at the margin, and very shortly acuminated ; crest semi-lunate with 



a three-toothed appendage in front, ochreous yellow. Column 



Avhite, triquetral, with two sub-quadrate wings that are rose-purple 



bordered with white. 



Acacallis cyanea, Lindl. Fol. Orch. (1853). Kclib. iu Walp. Ann. VI. p. 505. 

 Aganisia cierulea, Eclib. in Gard. Chron. XXV. (1886), p. 720.t Williams' Orch. 

 Alb. VITI. t. 374. A. tricolor, Lindcnia, I. t. 45. A. cyanea, Lindenia, III. t. 

 110 (not of Benth). 



This is a very distinct orchid as regards the colour of the flowers 

 and the structure of the labellum. It was first detected in 1851 

 near the junction of the Amazon and Rio Negro rivers by 

 Dr. Spruce^ who reported that in its native forests the sepals and 

 petals are of a pure blue, which has not however been verified in 

 the few plants that have flowered in Europe. It was not introduced 

 into cultivation till many years after its discovery; the earliest 

 notice we find of it is its flowering in the collection of the 

 Honourable Erastus Corning, at Albany, New York, in 1882; and 

 three years later in the garden of Mr. Walter Holland, at Moseley 

 Hill, Liverpool, and this was probably the first occasion of its 

 flowering in England. Owing to the remoteness of its habitat, it 

 has always been a rare plant in European orchid collections. 



Cultural Note. — The habitat of Acacallis cyanea is in one of the 

 hottest and most humid regions in the world, and therefore it requires 

 the highest temperature available in the orchid houses of this country. 

 On account of its scandent habit it should be affixed to a block of 

 wood or raft; in other respects its cultural treatment is that of 

 orchids usually grown in the East Indian house. 



* Journ. Linn. See. XVIII. p. 321. 



t The plant described by Eeichenbach under this name in the Gardeners' Chronicle, VI. 

 (1876), p. 226, is evidently a different species. 



