136 ORCHIDS 



Cycnoches. 



and curved, whilst at the apex, where the pollen-masses are 

 inserted, it is swollen into a roundish kjioh. This species is of 

 easy culture, and flowers freely about June or July. Some 

 varieties produce only three flowers on a scape, whilst in others 

 we have seen as many as ten. A native of British Guiana, 

 185S. (Fig. 40: W. O. A., t. 263.) 



C. ventricosum {Batmi.). — This produces several — usually 

 two— racemes of flowers from the axils of the upper leaves on 

 the last-matured pseudo-bulbs ; eacli raceme bears five flowers, 

 and each flower has lanceolate sepals, the petals being curved 

 downwards, and light green in colour. The lip is white, with a 

 black callosity on the short claw that connects it with the 

 column. The strange behaviour of this plant when it was 

 first introduced caused no little surprise amongst botanists, and 

 led to a careful investigation of the whole genus by Dr. Lindley. 

 He wrote of C. ventricosum : "Such cases shake to the foundation 

 all our ideas of the stability of genera and species, and prepare 

 the mind for more startling discoveries than could have been 

 otherwise anticipated." At one time it produces large green 

 flowers, in a short spike, with broad, flat sepals and petals, and 

 a white convex lip, and at another bears small blackish flowers 

 in a very long drooping spike, the narrow sepals and petals 

 folded back, the labellum disk-like, with a horn in the middle 

 and projecting finger-like divisions round the edge. On one 

 occasion these two distinct kinds of flowers were produced on 

 the same spike. Guatemala, 1842. (B. M., t. 4054.) 



C. Warscewiczii {Rclih. f.). — This plant also sometimes 

 produces on one raceme flowers of quite a different appearance 

 from those produced on another. It is supposed to be a sexual 

 form of C. vcnfricosiim^ notwithstanding that both have been 

 described, and are now cultivated, as distinct species. The 

 larger, or female, flowers occur three or four together on a short 

 raceme, and have broad sepals and petals, and a broad, pale 

 green, undivided lip. The smaller, or male, flowers are produced 

 on a long, pendent raceme of twelve to eighteen ; they are 

 wholly pale green except the lip, which is yellow, and much 

 divided. In these flowers the column is long and curved, whilst 

 in the larger form it is short and club-shaped. Guatemala, 1S79. 



CYMBIDIUM. 



Thirty .species are included in the genus Cymbidiuvi 

 {S'zu.}, of the tribe VandecE, but not more than half of 

 them are known in cultivation. The genus is represented 



