CATASETUM LONGIFOLIUM. 
[Pirate 456. | 
Native of Demerara. 
__ Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs fusiform, clustered, somewhat slender, deflexed, clothed 
with large white, sheathing scales. Leaves linear, ligulate, deep green, deciduous. 
Peduncle springing from the. base of the pseudobulb and like it deflexed, of a 
purplish brown colour, many-flowered. Bracts small, oblong-acute. Sepals and petals 
broadly oblong, turned backwards, greenish yellow tipped with crimson ; Jip helmet- 
re te having a fringed membrane under the limb, rich yellow tipped with deep 
ake... 
CaTAsETUM LoNGIFoLIuM, Lindley, Botanical Register, 1839. Idem. Sertum 
,AT. 
Orchidaceum, t. 31. Refugium Botanicum, t. 32. 
Monocantuvs tonerrouius, Hooker, Botanical Magazine, t. 3019. 
This plant does not belong to a very popular genus amongst the Orchid growers of 
the present day, but in the earlier days quantities of these plants were grown, which 
used to be separated into three genera, viz., Catasetum, Monocanthus and Myanthus, 
but as Sir Robert Schomburgk afterwards discovered flowers of all three genera 
growing upon one spike, and the same thing has occurred in our gardens at home 
with cultivated plants upon more than one occasion, it has led to the absorption 
of the two last names by the older one of Catasetum, and the two latter genera 
have been disused. The plant we have now under consideration was discovered by 
Sir R. Schomburgk some fifty-seven years ago, growing on the stems of the Moriche 
or Ita Palm (Mauritia flexuosa), in the Camuri Creek, a tributary of the river 
Demerara. He afterwards found it growing in profusion on the same Palm in the 
low marshy grounds of the streams called Wiwai and Wicki, both tributaries of the 
river Berbice ; here the Mauritia Palm grows in great abundance, reaching its maximum 
about the delta of the Orinoco, where the flooded forests of the region become the 
home of the tribe of Indians known as Guaranes, who suspend their dwellings in 
the tops of the trees. 
Catasetum longifolium is a very handsome and _ interesting species, and 
bloomed first in this country in the year 1839—first with Mr. Brocklehurst, of The 
Fence, Macclesfield, and a month or two afterwards with Mr. Morris, of The 
Retreat, Battersea, who had received it from Demerara through his friend, Mr. Henry 
Gloster. The plant here figured, which is a very good variety, flowered in the 
Royal Gardens, Kew. : 
