530 



ORCHID-GEOWER S MANUAL. 



Mo RM ODES, Undley. 



(THie Vancleae, subtribe Stanliopieae.) 

 A most interesting genus, of which only a few of the species find 

 favour with Orchid cultivators. They are related closely to Catasetum, 

 but differ in the sepals being usually nari-ow and more spreading, and 

 the lip narrowed below into a claw, incurved, ascendent, and obliquely 

 twisted. They are epiphytes, with short oblong or fusiform stems, 

 sheathed by the membranaceous bases of the old leaves, of which three 

 or four lance-shaped plicated ones are produced at the top ; the scapes 

 issue from some of the nodes of the stems. They are found in Peru, 

 U. S. of Colombia, Central America, and Mexico, upwards of a do'zen 

 species being described. / 



Culture. — These plants are of deciduous habit, and do best in the 

 GatUeya house, potted in peat, with a liberal quantity of water supplied 

 to the roots during their period of growth, after which water should be 

 gradually withheld until they become quite dry, when they may be placed 

 near the glass till they begin to grow. They are propagated by division. 



M. BUCCINATOR, Lindl.—A very curious distinct species, which Eeiclaen- 

 bach describes as " the most polyohromatic Orchid of the w.orld." The form 

 originally described by Lindley had the flowers pale greeu, "with an ivory- 

 white lip, whose sides are so rolled back as to give it the appearance of a 

 trumpet." Other forms have pale yellow flowers, densely spotted with crimson, 

 and a greenish-yellow lip, also spotted w^ith crimson, the markings on the sepals 

 much smaller than those on the petals. This species well represents the con- 

 tortion of the parts of the flower peculiar to this genus, the column being 

 twisted sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. It flowers in the 

 autumn months. — Mexico. 



M. BUCCINATOR MAJUS, Bchb. /.—A variety which has larger ochre- 

 coloured flowers with numerous small cinnamon-coloured dots on the sepals 

 and petals, the lip bearing only a few obscure pallid markings on the sides. — 

 New Grenada. 



M. CALANTHUM.-See M. Colosstjs. 



M. CARTONII, Hook. — A variable plant allied to M. igneum, which it much 

 resembles in habit. Flowers yellow, sometimes spotted, at others barred or 

 striped with red. It is named in honour of Mr. Carton, formerly gardener to 

 the Duke of Northumberland, at Syon House, who first flowered it. — U. S. of 

 Colombia. 



Fxa.— Sat. Mag., t. i2U ; Gard. Chr'on., 1871, p. 447, ff. 87, 88 ; Paxton, Fl. Oard. 

 iii. t. 95. 



