LYCASTE. 95 



collection of the Rev. John CloweSj at Broughton Hall, Manchester, 

 in the followiug year, and shortly afterwards in other places, when 

 its great merit as a garden plant became generally recognised. 

 Judging from the numerous importations that have been made from 

 Guatemala and the adjoining State of Hondui\as, it must exist in 

 immense quantities in those countries. Like most orchids that have 

 been introduced in large numbers, the flowers of Lijcaste SJnnneri 

 have proved to be variable in colour, especially in the labellum ; the 

 sub-varieties described above are among the most distinct that have 

 been noticed, of which the pure white form {alba) has always been 

 in high repute. 



Ly caste 81dnneri is one of the easiest of orchids to cultivate, 

 requiring only a temperature that does not sink below 10° C. (50° F.). 

 It flowers ill the late autumn and winter months, continuing a long 

 time in perfection. 



L. tetragona. 



Pseudo-ljulbs ovoid, elongated, acutely four-angled, 3 — 4 inches lonfr, 

 monophyllous. Leaves 12—18 inches long. Scapes as long as the 

 pseudo-bulbs, 3 — 4 flowered ; cauliue bracts reduced to small ovate, 

 acute scale-like appendages ; floral bracts similar but larger. Flowers 

 Avith a peculiar fragrance, not fully expanding; sepals and petals light 

 yellow-green streaked with red-brown, broadly ovate, acute, tlie petals 

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

 fleshy, three-lobed ; the side lobes sub-quadrate, incurved ; the inter- 

 mediate lobe oblong, obtuse, saccate at the base; all the hdjes whitish, 

 sometimes yellowish green beneath, deep maroon-viok't on the inner 

 side; plate of disk narrow, grooved, protruded in front, evanescent 

 below. Column terete, greenish yellow. 



Lycaste tetragona, Liudl. in Bot. Reg. 1843, misc. No. 64. Kolib. in Walp. Ann. 

 VI. p. ^602. Maxillaria tetragona, Liiidl. in Bot. Reg. t. 1428 (1831). Bot. Mag. 

 t. 3146. 



An aberrant species both geographically and structurally. Its 



habitat is in southern Brazil, more than one thousand miles away 



from its nearest congeners in a geographical sense, Lycaste plana 



and L. Linyualla of the Andes of Bolivia and southern Peru. 



Its pseudo-bulbs are distinctly four -angled, and its flowers, unlike 



those of all other Lycastcs, are not solitary, but are borne in 



threes and fours on one peduncle; these also differ from the Andean 



species in the sepals and petals being nearly equal, and in their 



dilferently-shaped lip. L. ictrayona was originally introduced in 1837 



