BiFRENARlA. 75 



BIFRENARIA. 



Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 152 (1832), and Bot. Reg. 1843, misc. No. 67. Benth. at 

 Hook. Gen. Plant. III. p. 546. 



The Bifrenarias are associated witli the orchid culture of the past 

 iu a much higher degree than with that of the present, and, with 

 the exception of Bifrenaria Harrisonice, which has to a greater or 

 less extent held its ground for the greater part of a century, they 

 have long since receded before the more brilliant Oechidej: of the 

 temperate regions of the Andes and southern Brazil. Of the ten 

 described species, seven or eight of them were introduced into 

 European gardens and figured in the botanical serials of the first 

 half of the century, nearly all of them as Maxillarias, to which 

 genus they were originally referred, but afterwards removed by 

 Lindley by reason of the different structure of their pollinary 

 apparatus. This differs from Maxillaria proper in having the pollen 

 masses attached to the gland by a pair of distinct straps or 

 caudicles, instead of one; the generic name from hi for bis, ^Hwice," 

 and frenum, "a strap or bridle," was suggested by this character. 

 Bifrenaria further differs from Maxillaria in the flowers being racemed, 

 not solitary. 



The species here noted are still in cultivation ; they are natives of 

 the hot damp valleys of Guiana and Brazil, and thence require the 

 cultural treatment usually applied to the occupants of the East Indian 

 house. 



Bifrenaria atropurpurea. 



Pseudo-bulbs sub-conic, four-angled, 2—3 inches long, much corrugated 

 when old, monophyllous. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute, G — 10 inches 

 long. Scapes sheathed at the base with ovate, inflated brown bracts, 

 3 — 5 flowered. Flowers 2 inches in diameter when spread out; sepals 

 - and petals dull claret-red with a yellowish stain in the centre ; the 

 dorsal sepal and petals elliptic-oblong acute; the lateral sepals broader, 

 oblong, keeled behind, adnate to the lip and foot of column at the 

 base, and forming with them a short obtuse spur; lip oblong, incurved 

 at the sides, reflexed and undulated at the apex, bright rose suff'used 

 with white ; crest a thick ish oblong plate obscurely toothed at the 

 front margin. Column short, terete, claret-red ; anther white. 



Bifrenaria atropurpurea, Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. p. 152 (1832). Id. in Bot. 

 Reg. 1843, misc. p. 52. Rclib. in Walp. Ann. VI. p. 547. Maxillaria atropurpurea, 

 Lodd. Bot. Cab. t. 1877. 

 Introduced by Messrs. Loddiges from Rio de Janeiro in 1828, 



