STANHOPEA. 



117 



and to otlier correspondents. It is one of the best known of 

 Stanhopeas and also one of the most variable in the colour and 

 spotting of its flowers. As a species it is distinguished by its 

 long narrow lip, of which the horns of the mesochile ai-e short, 

 broad, and at a considerable angle to the epichile. 



Mr. Skinner in a cominnnication to Mr. Harris respecting the liabitat 

 of Stanhopea oculata in Guatemala stated that he found it growing 

 on the same tree as Oncidium leucochihim in the higher temperatures, 

 and recommended for its culture in Europe that it should be kept in a 

 temperature not colder than 1.3° C. (55° F.) nor warmer than 21" C. 

 (70° F.), that it should be well watered from June to September, and 

 from October till May only slightly watered every evening at sunset 

 to resemble the dews of its native home — not, it must be recollected, 

 so heavy as people represent them in Europe, the region l)eing high 

 and very different from a coast climate. The seasons are the same as 

 in England, the coldest weather being from December to February Avhen 

 the thermometer sometimes sinks to .3° — 5° C. (36°— 42° F.) at sunrise.* 



S. Platyceras. 



Scapes stoutish, usually two-flowered. Flowers nearly as large as 

 those of Stanhopea tigrina ; sepals and petals nankeen-yellow spotted 

 with red-purple, many of the spots ocellated, the sepals broadly ovate- 

 lanceolate, sub-acute ; the petals linear-lanceolate, acute ; hypochile of 

 lip broadly cymbiform, produced near its front end into a fleshy 

 oblong process, maroon-purple, paler and spotted at the basal end ; 

 horns of mesochile broadly sickle-shaped ; epichile shortly clawed, ovate, 

 acute ; both mesochile and epichile whitish more or less spotted with 

 red-purple. Column long and slender, sbghtly arching, narrowly 

 winged beyond the middle, whitish dotted with purple. 



Stanhopea Platyceras, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. 1868, p. 27. Saundcr's lief. Bot. 

 11. t. 108 (1878). The Garden, XXX III. (1888), t. 652. 



A very handsome species introduced by Messrs. Low and Co. 

 from New Granada, and which flowered for the first time in this 

 country in the collection of Mr. John Day at Tottenham, in 1867, 

 and subsequently in that of Mr, Wilson Saunders at Highfield, 

 Reigate, and in other places ; its precise habitat has not been 

 dividged. The specific name, from ttXoti/c, "broad," and Ktpaq, 

 " a horn," refers to the unusually broad horns of the mesochile, 

 and which with the curved and broad boat-like hypochile well dis- 

 tinguishes the species. Mr. James O'Brien, of Harrow, kindly sent 

 us materials for description. 



* Bot. Reg. 1840, misc. p. 44. 



