May, 1923.] THE. ORCHID NEVIEW, 147 
ACINETAS. 
LTHOUGH the genus Acineta is not a large one, there are a few 
species worthy of being included in a miscellaneous collection. Rather 
a high temperature is required, and on account of their pendulous spikes 
the plants are best suspended from the roof when in flower. Some culti- 
vators grow them in baskets all the year through, and only take them down 
occasionally for the purpose of applying water. The large pseudobulbs carry 
plaited leaves, and produce the many-flowered inflorescences from their base. 
A. Barkeri was originally discovered by Ross in a dark ravine in the 
neighbourhood of Xalapa, in Mexico, in 1837, and sent home to Mr. Barker, 
in whose garden at Springfield, near Birmingham, it flowered in 1838. 
Flowers somewhat globose in shape, fragrant, golden-yellow, with a sangui- 
neous spot on the lip, and a few red spots on the base of the petals. Most 
collections of olden times contained one or more plants of this fine species. 
A. densa is a native of Turialba, in Costa Rica, where it was discovered 
in 1819 by Warscewicz, from whom it was obtained by Mr. G. Ure Skinner 
for the Horticultural Society. It appears to have first flowered under culti- 
vation in the collection of Bishop Sumner at Farnham Castle. Although it 
has the reputation of being a shy flowering plant, this may be only a matter 
of cultural detail. The pendulous racemes, which extend toa length of 2-3 
feet, bear many flowers of bright yellow colour; the petals spotted with red, 
the spots aggregated towards the base; the fleshy lip densely spotted and 
blotched with reddish-brown. 
A. superba is the earliest specific name of the plant well-known in 
gardens as A. Humboldtii. The following botanical history of this hand- 
some plant is given by Messrs. Veitch in their Orchid Manual: ‘ According 
to Dr. Lindley it was discovered by the great traveller Humboldt and his 
companion Bonpland, growing on trees in the temperate parts of Tumbez 
near Zaruma, in Peru (now Ecuador) ; it was also found by them cultivated 
in a garden at Loxa, at 6,000-7000 feet elevation. The description and 
figure of the plant in Humboldt and Kunth’s Nova Genera et Spectes 
Plantarum caused a desire, even in the early days of Orchid culture, to see 
it in European gardens, and the surprise was great when Dr. Lindley 
announced that the plant figured in the Botanical Register as Peristeria 
Humboldtii was without doubt the Anguloa superba of Humboldt, in whose 
figure, however, the raceme is made to grow erect instead of pendulous. 
The first living plant seen in England ‘was imported by Mr. Wilmore, of 
Oldford near Birmingham, not, however, from Ecuador, but from Porto 
Cabello in Venezuela, many hundreds of miles distant, and it flowered in 
his garden in March, 1842, and was figured in the Botanical Register as 
Peristeria Humboldtii. Subsequently Prof. Reichenbach saw or possessed 
