638 



ORCHID-GROWER S MANUAL. 



O. MACULATA SUPERBA, Hort.—This is a very fine variety of our British 

 species 0. maculata. There are many of the native species which are very 

 interesting, though they are difficult to manage, or get the credit of being so, 

 because no one perseveres with them and endeavours to understand their 

 peculiar requirements. The present plant has bloomed very finely with us upon 

 several occasions, and is well worth general cultivation. It grows about 

 18 inches high, the leaves dark green, beautifully spotted with purple, and the 

 flower spikes about 1 foot long, densely set with the beautiful flowers, which 

 are a rich mauve, spotted and blotched with purple, and which last in perfection 

 a long time. ^ It flowers in May and June, and is a good match plant for 

 0. foliosa. — Ewrope. 



ORNITHOCEPHALUS, Hoolicr. 



(^Ti-ibe Vandeae, suitriie Notylideae.) 

 A curious small genus of JEpiphytal Orchids, which for the most part 

 are diminutive in stature, and do not produce showy flowers, the largest 

 flowered species being included here ; some score or more kinds are 

 known, all being natives of the Western Hemisphere, being found mostly 

 in Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South America. The genus was 

 established by Hooker upon 0. gladiatus, a small species which we are 



told grows upon the dead 

 branches of trees in the island 

 of Trinidad, and which was 

 introduced some seventy years 

 ago ; it obtained its name of 

 the "Bird's Head Orchid" from 

 the long tail-like gland attached 

 to the pollen masses, which give 

 it the appearance of a long- 

 billed bird's head in miniature. 



Culture. — The plant here 

 quoted thrives best in the heat 

 of the Cattleya house, upon a 

 block of wood with a little 

 sphagnum moss, or it may be 



grown in a small earthenware basket or pan suspended from the roof; 



these must be well drained and the plants kept nicely moist at all 



seasons of the year. It is a plant which takes a very long time to 



develop its spike of bloom. 



OEUITHOCEPHALUS GBAKDIPLOEUS. 



