ODONTOGLOSSUM URO-SKINNERI. 
[PLatE 417.] 
Native of Solola, Guatemala. 
Terrestrial. Pseudobulbs large and ovoid, compressed, and attached to a running 
rhizome, light green, spotted with purple on the basal portion. Leaves ovate, lan- 
ceolate, nine inches to a foot long, broad and recurved, dark green on the upper 
side, paler ‘beneath, where they are carinate. Scape erect, from two to three 
feet high, sometimes branching, and many-flowered, the individual blooms from two 
to three inches across, and perfumed with the fragrance of honey. Sepals and petals 
sub-equal, oblong, acute, usually green, thickly spotted with dull brown, but in the 
present instance a rich deep chestnut-brown, with numerous green tesselations; lip 
broadly cordate, clawed at the base, undulated, rich bright rose, netted with white. 
with spotted lines of dark rose, and bearing two thin fleshy plates on the claw. 
Column winged. 
OpontocLtossuM Uro-Sxinneri, Lindley in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1859, pp. 708, 
724; Bateman’s Monograph of ee t. 2; Warner's Select. Orchidaceous 
Plants, Third Series, t. 17; Lindenia, iii., t. 122; Veitch’s Manual of Orchidaceous 
Plants, part i., p. 69 Cie woodcut) ; Williams Orchid-Grower’s Manual, 6 ed., p. 466. 
The typical species was found by Mr. George Ure Skinner, whose name it 
commemorates, near the village of Santa Catarina, in the district of Solola, which 
is nearly a hundred miles distant from the City of Guatemala; but the. plant here 
figured is a much finer variety than the one taken for illustration by Mr. Bateman 
in his Monograph of the genus Odontoglossum; indeed, we cannot but think that the 
appellation of splendens is really deserved by this variety. It would seem that the 
plant first flowered in the establishment of Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, about 
the year 1859, and some discussion took place about its being a hybrid; but Mr. 
Skinner was strongly opposed to this theory, and he writes thus -—*J may be 
allowed to satisfy you that this is no hybrid, it is a very distinct species which 
I found growing on rocks near the village of Santa Catarina,” and he further adds, “ it 
proves a very bad plant to get over alive, but in several attempts a few survived.” 
We suspect, however, that in the days when Mr. Skinner wrote these lines the 
means of transit were much slower than at the present time, and the style of 
packing was not so well understood as it is to-day ; there is consequently far less risk than 
formerly in the transit to England. We wish some one would put this to the test now, in 
the case of Odontoglossum Uro-Skinneri, as the plant is becoming somewhat scarce 
in cultivation. It is a noble, large- growing kind, and we have seen it growing 
luxuriantly in the collection of H. J. Buchan, Esq., Wilton House, Southampton ; 
U 
