35 
c Webs} 
Pi, COCLIN. 
STANHOPEA INSIGNIS Frost. 
THE DISTINGUISHED STANHOPEA. 
STANHOPEA., Vide Lindenia, Engl. ed., vol. III, p. 9. 
Stanhopea insignis. Pseudobulbi ovoidei, monophylli. Folia oblongo-lanceolata, acuta, plicata. Racemi penduli, 
2-4 flori, vaginis spathaceis tecti. Bracteae ovatae, acutae, leviter furfuraceae. Ovarium obtuse triquetrum. Sepala 
patentia, ovata, subobtusa, concava. Petala lineari-oblonga, sub-obtusa, undulata, reflexa. Labellum carnosum, trilo- 
bum; hypochilio semigloboso ventricoso anguli antice obtusati cum denticulo antrotso ; mesochilii cornubus falcato- 
incurvis; epichilio late subcordato-ovato, subacuto integro. Columna arcuata, basi, serhiteres, sursum late alata, apice 
subacuta. : 
Stanhopea insignis Frost ex Hook. Bot. Mag., LVI (1829), tt. 2948-9. — Lopp. Bot. Cab., XX, t. 1985. — 
LINDL. Bot. Reg., XXII, t. 1837 (excl. syn. et hab.). — Ip. Gen. & Sp. Orch., p. 157 (excl. syn. et hab.). — Ip. 
Fol. Orch., Stanhop., p. 1. — Reus. Fl, Exot., IV, t. 265. — Reus. F. in Warp. Ann., VI, p- 585. — Ip. Xen. 
Orch., I, p. 118. — Ip. II, p. 157, t. 164, fig. 3-4 (flos abnormalis). — Ip. in Gard. Chron., 1880, pt. II, p. 326 
(var. flava). 
j his handsome species is the one on which the genus was founded, 
upwards of sixty years ago. It flowered for the first time in October 1827, 
E in the Royal Gardens, Kew, and was communicated to Sir Wititiam 
Hooker by Mr Joun Frost, with the request that it might be called Stanhopea 
imsignis, in compliment to the Earl of STANHOPE, president of the Medico-Botanical 
Society of London. It had been introduced some time previously, and flowered 
for the first time at the date above mentioned. The description, together with 
two coloured plates, appeared in the Botanical Magazine, in 1829. 
Four years later it was figured by Messrs Loppicss, in their Botanical Cabinet, 
having been introduced, as we afterwards learn, from the woods of Brazil. 
In 1836 Linptry also gave a figure in the Botanical Register, from a specimen 
sent to him by Mr Carttey, with dissections prepared from a specimen in Lord 
Firzwituiaw’s collection. The locality and synonyms here given, as also in the 
same author's Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants, are, however, erroneous, 
and belong to S. bucephalus Linvt., a species originally found by Humsotpr and 
Bonpianp on the trunks of trees in shady woods near Cuenga, in the province 
of Quito, in Ecuador. 
According to ReicHenBacu, S. insignis was also met with in Peru, by 
Warscewicz, but its exact distribution seems to be very imperfectly known. 
Its nearest ally seems to be S. Warscewiczii Kiorzscu, which has falcate 
column wings, and a pair of teeth at the base of the hypochil, besides other 
differences in structure and colour. 
S. insignis is one of the handsomest species of the genus. Its drooping raceme 
iz. 
