406 



ORCHID-GROWERS MANUAL. 



neglected, tliongli they bear a really elegant inflorescence, and are of 

 varied and attractive colours. As the flower spike is pendulous and 

 produced from the base of the pseudobulbs, the plants are best grown in 

 baskets with pieat and moss ; indeed the spikes are extremely liable to 

 injurj- if grown in pots. The temperature of the cool end of the Cattleya 

 house suits them well ; they enjoy a liberal supply of water during 

 summer, both On the foliage and at the roots, but a very little will 

 suffice in winter, though even then the pseudobulbs should not be 

 allowed to shrivel. 



G. ARMENIACA. — See Acropeka armeniaca. 



G, ATRO-PURPUREA, Hook. — An old but pretty species, compact in growth, 

 with oblong-cylindrical ribbed pseudobulbs, bearing at the top two large ovate - 

 lanceolate light green leaves, and from the base very long drooping racemes of 

 numerous dark purple-brown or chocolate-coloured purple- spotted flowers, which 

 are produped during the summer months ; the flowers are peculiar in form, the 

 sepals laneeolatq, the upper one springing from the back of the column smaller 



GONCrOKA ATBO-PtEPUBEA. 



than the other two, which are spreading ; the petals are quite small, incurved, 

 fixed near the base of the upper sepal and some distance above the lateral ones ; 

 the lip is nearly an inch long, standing out at a right angle with the rest of the 

 flower ; at the base is a cylindrical claw, above which are four horns, two obtuse 

 and two ac-uttiinate ; th6 apex is laterally cdmprtssed, acuminate, forming U 



