ODONTOGLOSSUM PRIONOPETALUM. 
[PLate 474.] 
Native of U.S. Colombia. 
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs ovate, compressed, dark green, becoming furrowed with 
age, and bearing a pair of leaves which are linear-lanceolate, acute, keeled beneath, 
coriaceous in texture, about a foot long, and deep green. Scape erect, much longer 
than the leaves, many-flowered. Flowers large, measuring upwards of four inches 
across ;_ sepals linear-lanceolate with eutire edges, ground colour rich yellow heavily 
blotched and spotted with bright chestnut; the petals are broader and much 
toothed at the edges, but coloured after the same manner as the sepals; lip 
sub-panduriform, dentate on the edge, having a pure white blade and a large spot 
or blotch in front of the calli, and behind which the colour becomes of a yellow 
hue. Column slightly bent, with a few tooth-like projections on each side near 
the apex. 
_ODONTOGLOssUM PRIONOPETALUM, Hort. Lawrence, Walliams’ Orchid Grower's 
Manual, 6th ed., p. 459. 
This plant, the portrait of which we now have the pleasure to lay before our 
readers, is very handsome, presenting a charming appearance with, and a_ striking 
contrast to, the many other flowers in the long series of Odontoglossums which are 
now found in our houses in the spring of the year. Its general appearance leads 
_ one to suppose that it is a variety of the polymorphous species known as O. luieo- 
purpureum, or a natural hybrid between it and some other species in the vicinity 
of its native home; and there are many plants now in our houses which appear 
to have had a similar origin, but the mystery of their birth must remain in doubt 
until the home-raised seedlings produce their blooms. In this manner the origin 
of one natural hybrid has been verified beyond a doubt, for the plant which has 
been called O. Leroyanum, raised by M. Leroy, gardener to Baron Edmond de 
Rothschild, Armainvilliers, in France, has come to be looked upon as exactly the 
same plant previously named O. Wilckeanum by Reichenbach. It was a supposed 
hybrid between O. ecrispum and O. luteo-purpureum, which proved to be the case, 
but the area over which the latter plant is spread in the mountains of New 
Grenada renders it one of the most variable plants, and as it allows so many 
other species to be intermixed with it, it is not safe to predict the parents of 
any plant from the various stations in which it is found. The example here 
figured flowered in the collection of G. Hardy, Esq., Pickering Lodge, Timperly, 
Cheshire. 
