ftODRlatJEZlA. 171 



almost concealed by the labellum; the label] um is large and prominent 

 as in the allied genera Comparettia and Trichocentrum^ but the spur 

 is very shorty often reduced to a simple gibbosity projecting between 

 the bases of the lateral sepals ; the column is longer and more 

 slender than in those genera. 



Mr. Bentham followed Eeichenbach in uniting Lindley's Burlingtonia 

 with Ruiz and Pavon's Rodriguezia^ assigning the following conclusive 

 reason for doing so : — 



" Rodriguezia was originally confounded by Lindley Avitli Robert 

 Brown's Gomeza which has no spur, and when he afterwards separated 

 the si^urred species he unfortunately overlooked the fact that these 

 were the true Rodriguezias of Ruiz and Pavon, and gave them the 

 new name of Burlingtonia."* 



The Rodriguezias are dwarf epiphytes usually with short mono- 

 phyllous pseudo-bulbs springing from a rhizome that is sometimes much 

 elongated, and from which in several species is produced a dense 

 plexus of thread-like white roots that form a conspicuous feature 

 of the plant. 



The genus was dedicated by its founders to Emanuel Rodriguez, 

 a Spanish physician and botanist of the last century. 



Cultural Note. — Being of dwarf habit the Rodriguezias may be grown 

 in pans or baskets suspended near the glass in an intermediate house. 

 For those species of which the roots are developed as above described, 

 most cultivators use sphagnum moss only, placed beneath the pseudo- 

 bulbs on an ample drainage of broken crocks. A moist atmosphere 

 almost to saturation during the growing season is indisj)ensable. 



Rodriguezia Batemanii. 



Pseudo-bulbs ovoid, compressed and furrowed when old, monophyllous. 

 Leaves oblong-ligulate, acute, 3 — 4 inches long. Racemes as long as the 

 leaves, sub-pendulous, few-flowered ; bracts triangular, acute, keeled, almost 

 as long as the ovaries ; dorsal sepal and petals whitish, the former oblong, 

 acute, arched; the latter broader, obovate-oblong, streaked with rose- 

 purple ; the connate lateral sepals nearly equal to the dorsal one ; lip 

 broadly oblong, dilated and emarginate at the apical end, witli two 

 keels extending from the base to b(iyond tlu; middle, wliitc streaked 

 with rose-purple ; spur conic, very short. 



Rodriguezia Batemanii, Pijpp. et Endl. Nov. Gen. et Sp. I. t. 70 (1835). Rchb. in 

 Gard. Chron. 1866, p. 1042. Sanders' Ref. Bot. II. t. 128. Bmiingtonia rubescens, 

 Lindl. in Bot. Reg. sub. t. 1927 (1837). 



* Journ. Linn. Soc. XVIII. p. 326. 



