PLEUROTHALLIS ROEZLII. 
_ [Prats -476.] - 
Native of Sonson, New Grenada. 
Epiphytal. Psewdobulbs nil, having in their place long slender stems, which 
are enveloped in pale brown spotted sheaths, and bearing upon the apex a single 
oblong lanceolate leaf, which is thick and leathery in texture, carinate beneath, some 
six inches or more long, and of a bright lively green. Peduncles erect, about nine 
or ten inches long, becoming bent with the weight of the flowers, and having at 
the base of each flower a somewhat large membraneous bract, which is of a pale 
brownish hue. Flowers drooping, only partially expanded, of a deep purple-plum 
colour ; ‘sepals oblong-ovate, concave, keeled on the back, the lateral ones connate, 
forming one broad oval sepal; petals smaller than the sepals, of a rich vinous 
purple; lip hidden, lingulate, pubescent at the point, with the margins at the base 
incurved. Column white. 
PLEUROTHALLIS Rorztu, Reichenbach fil in Innnea, xli., p. 13. Godefroy’s 
Orchidophile, 1888, p. 80. | 
PLEUROTHALLIS LAURIFOLIA, Reichenbach in Xenia Orchidacea, ii., p.,81. 
The present plant belongs to a very large genus of Orchids which is exclusively 
‘confined to Tropical America and the West Indian Islands. Many of these plants 
are simply tropical weeds, having nothing at all to recommend them to the notice of 
the lovers of plants; a few, however, are worthy of a place in the collections of the 
curious, and amongst these may be named,such kinds as the beautiful little Pleurothallis 
Grobyi, P. picta, P. insignis, P. longissima, P. prolifera, and some others, The 
species we here wish to direct the attention of our readers to is one of the largest 
flowered and most beautifully coloured of the family, which comprises several hundred 
species and varieties known to science. This plant was originally found by Roezl 
in and about Sonson, growing on the moss-covered masses of granite which are 
there found scattered about in profusion. Sonson lies at a considerable elevation 
in the mountains of New Grenada, where there is usually, we are told, a heavy 
dense fog in the morning, the thermometer frequently falling below 32°, consequently 
the plants will grow in a very cool atmosphere under cultivation. The plant first 
became known to us in 1885, when exhibited in the spring of that year by M. 
Godefroy Lebceuf, of Argenteuil, near Paris, before the Royal Horticultural Society ; 
but the example from which our figure was taken, flowered in the establishment of 
M. A. A. Peeters, of Brussels, where many fine cool-house Orchids are to be 
found in most excellent health and vigour. 
