September, 192 i.J THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
STANHOPEA TIGRINA. 
S EVERAL remarkable Orchids are cultivated by Dr. Fred. Bedford, 
Dovercourt, Fulford, York, and although the collection is not as yet 
•one of the fir^t , magnitude, it contains, nevertheless, plants that possess 
considerable historic interest. It has recently been our pleasure to receive 
.a flower of Stanhopea tigrina superba, so fine that it is one of the few 
present day instances in which the term superba has been correctly applied. 
Even magnifica would not be out of place for so grand a flower. 
S. tigrina appears to have been known in the 17th century, but it did 
not flower in England until 1837, having been introduced by Messrs. Low 
-& Co, through their collector, Henchman. In 1843 Lindley found that the 
number of species of Stanhopea had greatly increased, and opportunities of 
•examining them in a living state having occurred, it was desirable that the 
genus should be reconsidered for the sake of defining the species with more 
exactness. Consequently he’described a dozen (Bot. Reg. 1843, sub. t. 44), 
and added the names of several others that were mentioned in Loddiges’ 
•catalogue, but unknown to him. S. tigrina was placed by Lindley in a 
section distinguished by the apex of the labellum being three-toothed. It 
"was described as much the finest of the genus, the excessively broad column 
and the radiating toothed lamellae within the cavity of the lip being peculiar 
•characters. 
In 1852, Lindley published the first part of his Folia Orchidacea, in which 
twenty species of Stanhopea are enumerated. He therein states : “ The 
species of this genus are almost all known from garden specimens, the 
fleshiness of their flowers rendering their determination in herbaria extremely 
•difficult. Hence their native countries have been often incorrectly stated. 
They vary greatly in the colours and a little in the forms of their flowers. 
The botanist will find safe characters in the hypochile or lower cavity of the 
labellum, the mesochile or middle part from which horns usually proceed, 
and the epichile or front lobe.” 
Two very distinct varieties of S. tigrina have been described, although it 
:is doubtful if these particular plants are still in existence. The first is 
variety nigro-violacea, in which the whole flower was deep brown-purple, 
•except the edges of the sepals and petals and the upper half of the lip. The 
second variety is lutescens, described as very fine, with the flowers brilliant 
yellow, inclining to orange, and barred with deep chocolate. 
Stanhopeas are natives of Tropical America, and the genus takes its 
name from Earl Stanhope, at one time President of the Medico-Botanical 
Society of London. They are best cultivated in baskets, so constructed 
“that the pendulous spikes may push their way through the bottom and 
<sides. When well cultivated they make a most attractive sight by reason 
