4So ORCHIDS 



Stanhopea. 



S. tigrina, differing chiefly in tlie size and colour of its flowers ; 

 thiese are 4lin. across. The sepals and petals are broad, con- 

 cave, spreading ; sepals creamy-white, with a few purple spots 

 about the base ; petals transparent Avhite, marked with large 

 blotches of purplish-crimson. The lip, which is white, has a 

 short, chin-like base and cavity, a pair of broad, taper-pointed 

 horns, and a long, projecting central lobe, with a claw-like tip. 

 The column is 2in. long, club-shaped, not winged, white, with 

 crimson spots. This species is a native of South Mexico, 

 whence it was introduced in 1S37. (Batem. IMonog., t. 27.) 



Var. bicolor differs from the type in having the ground- 

 colour of the sepals pure white. 



S. oculata (Liiidl.). — Considerable variation in the 

 markings of its large flowers is found in this well-known, 

 handsome spiecies. The pseudo-bulb is egg-shaped, 2in. long, 

 and furrowed. The leaf has a stout petiole 3in. long, and an 

 ovate blade i ft. long by 4in. wide. The flower-spike is 

 pendulous, ift. long, clothed with boat-shaped, scarious, pale 

 brown sheaths, and bearing three to six flowers ; these are 5in. 

 across. The sepals are 3in. long, lin. broad, reflexed, pale 

 yellow, thickly spotted with purple. The petals are half as large 

 as the sepals, and coloured the same, except that the spots are 

 fewer and larger. The lip is long, narrow, fleshy, the hollowed 

 portion lin. long, white, with crimson blotches, the front lobe 

 tongue-shaped, with a curved, horn-like lobe on each side, the 

 colour being white, with purple dots. The column is at least 

 2in. long, narrow in the lower half, winged above, and coloured 

 green, with purple dots. Introduced from J\fexico in 1829. 

 (B. M., t. 5300.) 



S. platyceras (-Rchb. /.). — This is the largest-flowered, one 

 of the richest-coloured, and the most remarkable in form, of 

 all Stanhopeas. Our description is taken from a plant that 

 flowered at Kew : Pseudo-bulbs and leaves as in S. Inicep/ialiis, 

 but stouter. Scape pendulous, short, one-flowered. Flower j'm. 

 across; sepals ^ik^n. long and 2:{;in. broad, wide-s|ireading, pale 

 yellow or nankeen-coloured, with numerous ring-shaped blotches 

 and spots of rose-purple ; petals narrower and shorter, but 

 coloured the same as the sepals ; basal part, or liypochil, of the 

 lip boat-shaped, 2-Jin. long, im. deep, and nearly lin. across; 

 the horns lin. long, broad, and pointing forwards parallel wilh 

 the tongue-shaped front lobe ; the colour of the boat-shaped 

 portion is deep purplish-crimson inside, paler outside, with spots 

 of a deeper colour ; the horns and front lobe are coloured like 

 the sepals; column 3in. long, winged near the top, greenish, with 



