Sept.-Oct., 1918.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 189 
singularity of the pseudobulbs, which are, as it were, wrapped in silver 
paper. The plant lasts quite a month in flower, and he never saw a more 
remarkable sight than a regiment of it, nearly a thousand strong, which he 
had met with at Messrs. Low’s. It was an Orchid with which dry and 
cool treatment agreed.—l.c. p. 549. 
wes 
N inflorescence of the rare Cycnoches ventricosum, Batem., is sent from 
the collection of Mrs. Bruce and Miss Wrigley, Bridge Hall, Bury. 
The plant received a Botanical Certificate from the Manchester Orchid 
Society on September 5th, and Mr. Rogers remarks that it was purchased at 
the sale of the late Lady Lawrence's collection. Few Orchids have a more 
CYCNOCHES VENTRICOSUM. | ae 
remarkable history. 
The species is a native of Guat 
collection of Mr. James Bateman, who described and figured it in 1837 
(Orch. Mex. & Guat., t. 5). The plant figured, which had been collected 
by Mr. G. Ure Skinner in the neighbourhood of Istapa, shows a pendulous 
raceme of six flowers and an old capsule. Mr. Bateman then remarked : 
“Among the Orchidaceous genera, Cycnoches will ever be conspicuous, aS 
yielding one of the most notable examples of the strange propensity of its 
tribe to mimic the forms of animated nature. The genus was founded by 
markable plant from Surinam (the C. 
s of which bore as close a resemblance 
as did the column to the long arching 
neck of the same graceful bird ; and these peculiarities are well expressed 
in the name Cycnoches (Anglice, ‘Swan-neck’). For upwards of four 
years the genus had consisted of only a solitary species, when a second 
made its appearance in the person of our present subject... - - The 
capsule represented in the drawing,” Mr. Bateman added, ‘adhered to the 
plant on its arrival in this country, and a most interesting relic it is, the 
hugh size of the seed vessel being scarcely less remarkable than the extreme 
minuteness of the seeds, with an ‘nnumerable quantity of which it was at 
one time filled.” 
Shortly afterwards C. ventricosum became involved in a curious 
mystery, which was not cleared up until half-a-century later. At t. 40 of 
the same work Mr. Bateman figured a Cycnoches Egertonianum, of which 
he remarked: ‘“ Strange things—and no less strange than true—have already 
been recorded of Orchidaceous plants, but the case which is represented in 
the accompanying plate casts into the shade all former frolics of ei 
Protean tribe. The facts are briefly as follow. Among Mr. Skinner's 
emala, and originally bloomed in the 
Professor Lindley, upon a re 
Loddigesii), the sepals and petal 
to the expanded wings of a swan, 
