128 



PERISTERIA. 



elata. ' 



Pseudo-bulbs sub-conic or broadly ovate, 6 iuclies long, and 3 — 4i 



inches broad near the base. Leaves lanceolate-cuneate, acute. 24 — 36 



or more inches long, prominently nerved beneath. Scapes 4 — 5 feet 



high, with an ovate, acuminate, keeled bract at each joint and a 



similar smaller one at the base of each ovary ; raceme 10 — 15 or 



more flowered. Flowers fleshy, globose, 2| inches in diameter, very ! 



fragrant ; sepals and petals French-white, concave within, the dorsal , 



sepal broadly ovate, obtuse, the lateral two sub-orbicular ; the petals 



obovate-oblong, obtuse, smaller than the sepals ; lip three-lobed, the 



side lobes ascending, oblong, obtuse, with a lobule on the anterior ' 



side above the middle, white spotted with purple ; the front lobe-j 



sub-quadrate, retuse, almost truncate, Avith a fleshy orbiciilar crest. ' 



Column terete above, concave below the stigma, anther beaked. 



Peristeria elata, Hook, in Bot Mag. t. 3116 (1831). Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. 

 p 160. Echb. in Walp. Ann. VI. p. 607. Jennings' Orch. t. 44. "Williams' Orch. i 

 Alb. VII. t. 327. ' 



Peristeria elata. 



This stately orchid has long been known as the Dove Plant from 

 the fancied resemblance o£ the column and its beaked anther, com- 

 bined with the ascending side lobes of the lip to the figure of a 

 Dove; characters which also obtained for it from the Spanish settlers 

 in Central America the name of El Espiritu Santo or Holy Ghost 

 plant. It is a native of Panama, whence it was first communicated 

 in 1826 by Mr, Barnard, a Peruvian merchant, to Mr. Harrison, of 

 Liverpool, in whose stove it flowered for the first time in this country 

 in 1831. Like Phaius grandifolius, Dendrobmm nohile and other 



