ODONTOGLOSSUM CORDATUM AUREUM. 
[PLaTE 489.] 
Native of Mexico and Guatemala. 
Epiphytal. — Psewdobulbs produced from an ascending rhizome, oblong, obtuse, 
compressed at the edges, bearing a single leaf. Leaves oblong lanceolate, acute, 
sub-coriaceous in texture, six to seven inches long, and rich green. Scape erect, 
from one to two feet high, sometimes paniculate, bearing many flowers. Bracts 
boat-shaped, herbaceous, shorter than the ovary. Flowers bright and showy, some 
three inches across; sepals lanceolate-acuminate, the lateral much the longer, keeled 
behind, slightly channelled above, yellowish white, transversely barred with greenish 
yellow ; petals shorter than the sepals and broader at the base, yellowish white, 
freely blotched and banded with greenish yellow, leaving the tips clear ; lip clawed, 
cordate acuminate, waved at the edges, pure white. Crest bilobed in front, having 
a blunt tooth-like process on either side at the base. Column clavate, slightly 
hairy, and greenish white. 
OponTocLossumM corpatum, Lindley, Botanical Register, 1838, miscell. 90. 
dd,, 2305 (2 G6. Id., Folia Orchidacea, 1852, Art. Odontoglossum, No. 12. 
Knowles and Westcott, Floral Cabinet, t. 100. Paaton’s Magazine of Botany, xii., 
p. 147. Pescatorea, 1860, t. 26. Botanical Magazine, t. 4878 (fig. as maculatum). 
_ Gartenflora, t. 356.  Bateman’s Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants, t. 167. 
Id., Monograph of Odontoglossum, t. 25. Orchid Album, iv., t. 186. Williams 
Orchid Growers’ Manual, 6th edition, p. 431. 
ODONTOGLOSSUM CORDATUM AUREUM, Supra. 
The typical plant, of which we here figure a variety, was introduced as 
long ago as 1837 by Mr. Barker, of Birmingham, with whom it flowered in the 
following year; but it soon slipped through the hands of the growers at home, 
and it was not until some sixteen or eighteen years later that it once more came to 
be a resident in our collections, whence it has never, we think, been absent sinee. 
[t is a plant which some of our best men have confounded with another Mexican 
species (O. maculatum), but from which it is easily distinguished. The original 
Species is one that should find a place in every collection, however small, for 
when strong, the spikes being so long they display their colour admirably, whilst 
the variety here figured contrasts well with it and the surrounding kinds which 
may be flowering at the same time. The plant here figured was drawn by our 
artist, Mr. J. N. Fitch, from a plant we imported ourselves a few years back, 
‘and although it is not so showy as some of the good types, it well deserves 
attention and cultivation for its distinctiveness. 
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