MAXILLARIA NIGRESCENS. 
[PLate 511.] 
‘Vative of New Grenada. 
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs ovoid, compressed, about two inches high, mono- 
phyllous. Leaves leathery, bright green, oblong-ligulate, acute, conduplicate at the 
base, about one foot in length and one and a half inches in breadth. Peduncles 
erect, slightly inclined at the top, one-flowered, three to four inches long, invested 
by scaly sheaths, Sepals spreading, ovate-lanceolate, acute, two and a half 
inches long, of a port-wine colour, the tips dull golden yellow; petals similar but of 
a deeper hue at the base: lip blackish purple, three-lobed, margins incurved, apex 
reflexed yellow. 
MAXILLARIA NIGRESCENS, Lindley, Orchidaceae  Lindenianae, p. 20. H. G. 
_ Reichenbach fil., Walper’s Annalen, vi., p. 518. 
MAXILLARIA RUBROFUSCA, Klotsch, Ind. Sem. Hori. Berol. 
The genus Maxillaria, although a very old one, appears to be much neglected 
by Orchid growers, very few of the species being generally cultivated, yet many 
are really attractive and well repay any care bestowed upon them by abundant 
crops of flowers which, if not as gaudy and bright as many other Orchids, are 
often quaint and fantastic, and thereby contribute to give variety, in form as well 
as colour, to a collection. We do not hesitate to assert that even some species yield 
to few in attractive bright colours, as for instance M. Sanderiana figured in vol. x. 
of this work, plate 463, and MM. venusta, also figured in this work on plate ae eg 
ninth volume. Mazillaria nigrescens was discovered in 1842 on the Cordilleras of 
Merida, in the United States of Colombia, by Mr. J. Linden. It is a very curious 
and attractive species, with ovate compressed pseudo-bulbs, which bear solitary 
oblong-ligulate dark green leaves, the flowers being produced singly in aire 
profusion from the base of the bulbs on erect spikes. The flowers: nde large, 
about 6 inches across, the sepals and petals of a deep port-wine colour, 
softening off to brownish yellow at the tips; the lip is stained with dull one 
Our present subject was taken from a plant which flowered in the Victoria _ 
Paradise Nurseries during the months of October and November. It is is 
useful for cutting purposes, producing as it does such a profusion whe; 
This species should be grown in the cool house in a compost of good ae 
peat with a little sphagnum moss added, and it should receive a corm ine 
of water while growing. The plants should be shaded from the direct rays of the 
