no 



STANHOPEA. 



almortt meeting it at its apex : the wiugs are membraneous and (lilate(l 

 beyond the middle.* 



The most noticeable deviations from this general structure occur 

 in (1) Stanhopea ecormiti, discovered by Warscevvicz in Central 

 America and now rarely seen in cultivation; it differs from all other 

 Stanhopeas in the lip consisting of the hypochile only and in its 

 much abbreviated and thickened column ; (2) 8. eburnea, in which 

 the horn-like appendages spring from the base and not from the 

 middle of the lip, and in other details as described under that 

 species. 



In their vegetation the Stanhopeas not only closely resemble the 

 Coryanthes_, but possess a remarkable uniformity inter se, so much so 

 that when not in flower many experienced cultivators are unable to 

 distinguish one species from another. The following description is 

 applicable to all the species here noticed. 



Front view of lip of Stanhopea Wardii. 



The 2:)sea(lo-hulhs are clustered, of ovoid shape, 2 — 3 inclies long, 

 clothed at the base ^vith ragged brown scales, strongly ribbed and 

 monophyllous. 



* It is certain that the remarkable structure we have sketched above is all-important in the 

 economy of the plant and its perpetuation, but why so complex a mechanism has become 

 necessary to its existence and the modifications it has undergone in the lapse of ages before 

 attaining its present form are still among the secrets of Nature. The powerful odour exhaled by 

 the flowers of most of the species, and which are all of short duration, is doul^tless an incentive 

 to the larger insects to visit the flowers and to make their way iuto the hypochile where 

 honey would be likely to be secreted or with the object of gnawing the interior lining which 

 they are said to devour with great avidity, and the forms of the mesochile and epichile are 

 among the contrivances to induce the insect to leave the flower through the opening between 

 the apex of the latter and that of the column, in which case the poUinia would be removed 

 while pressing its way through. For effecting fertilisation, this hypothesis demands the alight- 

 ing of an insect already loaded with pollinia on another unfertilized flower, and when passing 

 through the apical opening the pollinia would be deposited on the stigma. 



