Marcu, 1916.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 79 
by its gorgeous pendant inflorescence—the odour of which is so strong as 
often to attract the seeker’s attention before ever his eye has caught its , 
source—the Stanhopeas are nowhere encountered but on big, rough-barked 
trees in dense, shady, humid forest. The writer has gathered this Orchid 
on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec at 300 feet above sea-level ; in the State of 
Vera Cruz between Cordoba and Orizaba at from 2,000 to 5,000 feet ; and in 
the Sierra Madre, on the Pacific Coast, in the State of Chiapas, at 2,000 
feet. In these several widely separated localities the surrounding conditions 
were identical. In the case of the last named, the station was most plainly 
defined and limited by a visible line of demarcation forming the crest of a 
ridge, on the other side of which was a totally different class of vegetation. 
On the eastern (and landward) versant the base of this ridge was timbered 
with pine trees in scattered groups, interspersed in sheltered ravines with 
small palms—strange juxtaposition of arboreal emblems of cold and heat; 
higher up the vegetation changed from this predominant gregarious type to 
true tropical forest whose individuals were laden with long drooping mosses 
and a variety of epiphytal growth. On the edge of an escarpment, between 
the lower pine-clad slopes and the transition to the wetter belt, were masses 
of a dwarf Sobralia, in full flower, growing in the semi-terrestrial habit of 
many species of this genus amongst the rocks and in the loose stony soil. In 
the supervening mossy humid forest, exposed to frequent rains, aqueous mists, 
and prevalent winds from the north-east, was a multitude of Stanhopeas, 
amidst a becoming setting of Bromelias, Ferns, and large-leaved climbing 
plants—the whole forming a veritable botanical paradise. A step over the 
sharp summit of the ridge on to the seaward side disclosed a remarkable 
contrast in an absolutely distinct type of vegetation, wherein’ epiphytal 
growth, in any form whatsoever, was entirely absent. 
LIPARIS MACRANTHA.—This fine Formosan Liparis has now flowered in 
cultivation, in the collection of H. J. Elwes, Esq., Colesborne, Glos., a 
plant brought from Formosa by Mr. Elwes proving identical with the one 
originally described over twenty years ago from dried specimens (Rolfe, in 
Ann. Bot., ix. p. 156). It is a striking plant, bearing several large wavy 
leaves, and a scape about eighteen inches high, with very numerous, large 
vinous purple flowers, overan inch in expanse. The sepals are oblong, 
somewhat revolute, and the petals narrowly linear, while the broad, 
obcordate lip is reflexed, and has a central channel, and a_ strongly 
denticulate margin, with numerous diverging ridges underneath, corres- 
ponding to a set of lateral nerves; the latter extending from a pair of 
longitudinal nerves, which are isolated from the three central ones. It 
belongs to the section Molliifoliz, and is one of the finest species in the 
genus. A plant has been presented to Kew by Mr. Elwes.—R.A.R. 
