CCELOGYNE BARBATA. 



[Plate 143.] 



Xative of India: Bliotan, Khasija, ^c. 



Epiphytal. Pseudohulbs oun dish -ovate, plump, two-leaved, with brownish lanceo- 

 late bracts at their base. Leaves narrowed below into a petiole, cUiptic-oblong, 

 with a stout costa, plicate, leathery, one and a half-inch wide, and from six inches 

 to a foot long including the petiole, of a lively green. Peduncles erect, rigid, 

 springing from between the leaves, terete, terminating in a dense raceme of flowers, 

 below which are several pairs of abortive imbricated pale brown bracts. Flowers 

 large, wdiite, with a peculiar sooty or pitchy stain covering the inner side of the 

 lip, breaking out into fine pencillings towards the margin ; sepals white, oblong- 

 ovate, broaclish at the base, narrowed to the acute point ; petals white, lanceolate 

 acute, broadest at the base ; lip white, oblong, three-lobed, saccate at tlie base, 

 fringed with brown-based hairs on the anterior margins, and bearded with hairs 

 entirely dark brown on the three veins of the disk, forming three shaggy crests, the 

 side lob s tinged with pale flesh colour or pink outside. Column white, deflcxed, 

 bilobed at the end. 



CcELOGYNE BARBATA, Griffith, Itinerary Notes 72; Id. Notidw ad Plardas 

 Asiaticas, iii., 280, t. 291, fig. 2; Lindley, j. lia Orchidacea, art. Coelogyne, No. 21; 

 Reiclienhach Jil, in Walpers' Annales Bota lices Systematiccs vi., 229. 



Of our present subject Dr. Lindley remarks {Folia Orchidacea, 1. c.)— "This 



perhaps 



the finest of this fine genus. The coriaceous leaves are more than fifteen 

 inches long; the scapes are erect, very stiff, as long as the leaves, and furnished 

 at the apex w*:h an imbricated sheath of bud scales, out of which appears a 

 flexuous rac( ne four to six inches long, composed of very large - blunt deciduous 

 bracts. The flowers are fully two inches and a half in diameter, pure white, 



pt very long hairy fringes which are brown at their base, where they border 



the lip, and wholly brown where they cover the veins, and form three shagg} 

 crests." The only figure previously published is a very indifferent one of Griffitli's 



quoted above. 



In the Ccelogyne we now bring to the notice of our readers we have one ^ ol 

 the most useful species of a comparatively large genus, and one that blooms during 

 the winter months, when white flowers are sought after. It is one, moieover the 

 flowers of which stand well when cut. We are indebted to Mr. W. Bull, of 

 Chelsea, for the introduction of this species ; which is a free bloomer when the 

 bulbs are strong. It is a plant which possesses many good qualities, bemg a fro 



grower as well as a . free bloomer, and having the advantage of bearing fine evergreeu 



rill thrive well in the cool house with Odontoglots ; and besides , all 



foliage ; it 



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