MAXILLARIA. 155 



on any map to which we have access^ the habitat given by 

 Humboldt is virtually valueless although quoted by Lindley in his 

 Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants, where the plant was lirst 

 referred to Maxillaria. 



It was next dealt mth by Reichenbach in Walper's Amiales 

 Botanices in 1863 ; he gives no description of the plant but only 

 the following brief quotation, apparently from a Lindenian source. 

 " An epiphyte with oval flattened pseudo-bulbs, petals white as 

 snow with a powdery yellow lip. Forests of Jaji in the province 

 of Merida 5,000—6,000 feet elevation, Ocafia at 6,000 feet." But 

 this evidently refers to Maxillaria venusta which comes from that 

 region and whiiih has occasionally been confused with M. grandijlora. 

 The next notice of it occurs in L' Illustration horlicole of 1870, at 

 that time edited by M. Andre, who described the plant from living 

 specimens which had been sent by Wallis to M. Linden's horti- 

 cultural estabhshment in 1867 from Peru (probably Ecuador is meant), 

 its station being at an altitude of 5,000 — 6,500 feet. If we assume 

 the word Paraguay ensium of Humboldt and Kuntli to be a clerical 

 error for Peruvianorum, the habitat given by them can to a great 

 extent be reconciled with that given by Andre. The M. eburnea 

 of Lindley was gathered near Mount Meracaevi, about 30 miles 

 N.N.B. from Cimeralda, but this locality is as obscure as that given 

 by Humboldt. 



M. Houtteana. 



Pseudo-bulbs narrowly oblong, compressed, ]| — 2 inches long, mono- 

 phyllous. Leaves Imear-ligulate, acute, 4 — 6 inches long. Scapes short ; 

 sepals and petals ligulate, acute, cinnamon-brown with a narrow yellow 

 margin, brownish green behind, the petals a little narrower and shorter 

 than the sepals ; lip oblong, acute, not lobed, gently reflexed towards 

 the apex, gamboge-yellow spotted Avitli red-purple. Column semi-terete, 

 red spotted with yellow in front. 



Maxillaria Houtteana, Rchb. in Hamburg Gartenzeit, XIV. p. 212 (1858). Kegel's 

 Gartenfl. 1858, p. 286. 



Our knowledge of this species is derived from a plant in the 



Royal Gardens at Kew, where the above description was taken It 



was originally introduced from Guatemala by the late Louis Van 



Houtte, in whose nursery at Ghent it flowered in 1849. It is a 



dwarf species remarkably disiinct in the colour of its flowers. 



