HOULLETIA ODORATISSIMA ANTIOQUIENSIS 



[Plate 316.] 



Native of the United States of Coliunhia. 



r 



Sub -Terrestrial. Pseudohulhs tufted, ovoid, stout, some three inches high, deep 

 green, smooth when young, and enveloped in large brownish sheathing bracts, which 

 soon die away — with age they become much furrowed. Leaves petiolate, solitary, 

 broadly lanceolate, acute, plicate, and deep green. Seape springing from near the 

 base of the pseudobulb, stout, erect, six to ten-flowered, individual flowers large 

 and richly coloured. Bracts linear-oblong, acuminate, deciduous ; perianth spreading. 

 Sepals oblong-obtuse, concave, rich chestnut-brown within, dull brown on the outside ; 

 petals much smaller than the sepals, linear-oblong and acute, rich chestnut-brown on 

 both surfaces; lip shorter than the sepals, jointed at the middle; epichyle somewhat 

 sagittate, the posterior angles produced into short conical horns, colour white tinged 

 with pale lemon-yellow ; hypockile similarly coloured, the sides produced backwards 

 into long slender recurved horns. Column stout, falcate, white tinged with pale 

 yellow, and blotched with chestnut-brown on the back. 



HouLLETiA ODOEATissiMA, Linden, Pescatorea, t. 3 ; Gardeners' Chro7iicle, 1885, 

 xxiv., p, 777, fig. 173. 



HouLLETiA ODORATISSIMA Antioquiensis, Linden, L' Illustration Ilorticole, 1870, 

 xvii., t. 12; Williams, Orcliid-Groiver^s Manual, 6 ed., p. 343. 



The genus Houlletia was so named in honour of M. Houllet, jardinier-chef des 

 Serves au Museum de Paris, and the companion of Guillemin during his botanical 

 researches in Brazil. The plant discovered by Guillemin, upon which the genus 

 was founded, did not, however, receive any specific name, but it is supposed to be 

 identical with a plant discovered by Gardner, on the Organ Mountains, and to 

 which Lindley gave the name of H. BrocUehurstiana. 



Houlletia belongs to the tribe Vandece, and would appear to be nearly allied to 

 the genus Stanhopea; as far as we know the genus is a small one, some eight or nine 

 species and varieties only having been introduced to cultivation up to the present time, 

 all of which, savincr H. BrocJdehurstiana, being natives of the United States of 

 Columbia. They are all remarkable for their large, handsome, nodding flowers, and 

 the one we here illustrate particularly so, being far superior in the beauty of its 



blooms to the typical plant (H, odoratissima). This variety was first disco\ 



and sent home by Mr. Gustav Wallis, in the year 1868, from the. province of 

 Antioquia, U.S. of Columbia, during a collecting expedition for M. Linden, of 



Brussels, by whom the plant was first flowered and named. This fine plant 

 remained scarce for some few years ; but now, thanks to the energy of various 



