LYCASTE. 89 



L. gigantea. , 



Pseudo-bulbs 4 — 5 inches long and 1-| inch 1n-oad, di-triphyllous. 

 Leaves 20 — 30 inches long with rather long foot-stalks. Scapes stoutish, 

 shorter than the leaves. Flowers large with the segments turned 

 more or less forwards; sepals lanceolate, acute, 5 inches long, olive- 

 green, the lateral two sub-falcate; the petals similar but smaller; lip 

 oblong, maroon-chocolate bordered with orange-yellcjw, three-lobed, the 

 side lobes narrow, erect, the intermediate lobe reflexed ; plate of disk 

 somewhat saddle-shaped, much thickened, and emarginate at the apex. 

 Column triquetral, bent, whitish. 



Lycaste gigantea, Lindl. in Bot. B^g. 1843, misc. p. 15 ; and 1845, t. 34. 

 Bot. Mag. t. 5616. lichb. in Walp. Ann. VI. p. 604. Williams' Orch. Alb. IX. 

 t. 408. 



Originally discovered by Hartweg in 1842 in Ecuador at a place 

 called Quebrada de las Juntas, near Guayaquil, and sent by him 

 to the Horticultural Society of London, in whose garden at Chiswick 

 it flowered in ISAo; it had, however, previously flowered in Belgium, 

 whither it had been introduced from La Guayra, probably through 

 Linden.* It was subsequently gathered by Wagoner on the Cordillera 

 of Venezuela, by Purdie in Santa Martha, and by other collectors 

 on the eastern Cordillera of Colombia as far south as Bogota, always 

 at a considerable elevation. Its nearest affinity is Lycaste fulvescens, 

 with which it is in some localities found associated and with which 

 it agrees in its elongated sepals and petals, the latter of which are 

 more spreading in these species than in any other Lycaste in 

 cultivation. 



L. lanipes. 



Pseudo-bulbs sub-cylindric, elongated, 5 — 6 inches long, di-triphyllous. 



Leaves 20 — 25 inches long, the petiole about one-third the length of 



the blade. Scapes 3 — 4 inches long. Flowers 4 inches across vertically ; 



sepals oblong-lanceolate, greenish white ; petals similar but shorter, 



ivory-white ; lip ivory-white, oblong, slightly constricted at the middle, 



reflexed at the apex, the margins of the basal half entire, of the 



apical half fimbriated ; plate of disk dilated at the apex and with 



3 — 5 parallel raised lines. Column semi-terete, arched. 



Lycaste lanipes, Lindl. in Bot. Keg, 1843, misc. p. 15. Rchb. in Walp. Ann. 

 VI. p. 606. L. Cobbiana, Hort. 



* The plants must have been shipped at La Guayra, not gathered there. La Guayra is 

 the port of Caracas, and is more than 1,200 miles distant from Guaya(juil in Ecuador. 

 As Lycaste gigantea is known to be dispersed over the Cordilleras of Colombia for many 

 hundreds of miles, Lindley's statement in the Botanical Register respecting its Ecuadorean 

 habitat may be assumed to be correct. 



