SOPHRONITIS VIOLACEA. 



[Plate 291.] 



jyative of the Organ Mountains^ Brazil 



A small dwcirf epipliyte witli slender clustered ovate pseudobulbs, which bear a 

 solitary linear-acuminate leaf, which is leathery in texture, and dark green in colour. 

 Scape somewhat shorter than the leaf, furnished at the base with numerous small, 

 <lry, scaly bracts, and bearing from one to two flowers ; sepaJs and petals spreading, 

 nearly equal, free, lanceolate-acuminate in outline, and clear violet in colour. Lip 

 obovate, acute, connate with the base of the column, rich deep violet. Column 

 large, obtuse, fleshy, furnished with a small wing on each side near the summit ; 

 pollen masses eight. 



SoPHRONiTis VIOLACEA, Lhiclley, Paxton's Flower Garden, vol. iii., p. G9, fig. 223 ; 

 Lindley in Botanical Register, p. 3, 1840; Botanical Magazine, t. 6880; Williams' 

 ■Orchid-Groiver's Mammal, 6 ed., p. 578. 



• This species belongs to a genus of small-growing plants, all of which are 

 natives of Brazil, where they are said to bo found nestling in moss, on the branches 

 of old and decaying trees, at considerable elevations. S. cermia, the first lvnoT\Ti 

 kind, was introduced from Botofoga. It was originally proposed to call the genus 

 Sophronia, but Dr. Lindley afterwards changed it to Sophronitis — a name it has 

 •ever since retained. The next species introduced was S. grandiflora, discovered by 

 Gardner on trees in the Organ Mountains, near Eio Janeiro, in situations whore 

 rime frosts were seen in the mornings. A coloured plate of this beautifid orange- 

 scarlet flowered species, formed the frontispiece of the first edition of the Orchid- 

 Growers' Manual, which was published in 1852. The form there represented was 

 <;onsidered, at that time, a very fine one ; but since tlicn much superior varieties 

 have been sent home. Excellent portraits of two magnificent forms of >S'. grandijlora 

 'will be found in Warners Select Orchidaceous Plants, 3rd Series, *t. 3. S. violacea, 

 the plant now under consideration, was introduced in 1840, and flowered for the 

 first time with Mr. Bellendeu Kerr, of Cheshunt, who sent it to Dr. Lindley to name. 



The specimen from which our plate was taken came from the Nursery of 

 M. Truffaut, Versailles, France ; it was kindly sent for our artist to figure, and 

 ^^e can testify to its being a true and faithful sketch. It represents a variety 

 with larger flowers than that upon which the species was founded, although the 



•colour is precisely the same 



Sophronitis violacea is a 



pretty and 'entirely distinct species, and is said to occur 



^ery abundantly on trees in the Organ Mountains ; but although great quantiti 



