THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



THE GENUS BRASSAVOLA. 



Brassavolas cannot be called common in gardens, though several of the 

 species are more or less frequently met with, and, as they have been a good 

 deal confused, a short account of those which have appeared in cultivation 

 may be interesting. The genus is nearly allied to Laelia, but marked 

 differences are found in the short column, with fimbriate or denticulate 

 anther-bed, and in the presence of a beak to the ovary, which in a few 

 cases extends to a remarkable length, being much longer than the ovary 

 itself. And it may be added that most of the species also differ in their 

 pendulous habit, and narrow, fleshy leaves. The genus ranges from South 

 Mexico and the West Indies to South Brazil and Bolivia, and contains 

 three marked sections, whose characters are pointed out below. 



The section Cuneilabia is characterized by having the lip much 

 attenuated at the base, often being contracted into a long narrow claw, 

 above which it is suddenly dilated into a large ovate limb. Ten species 

 have been described, but these seem to be reducible to three, all of which 

 are known in cultivation. They are more or less pendulous in habit, and 

 have narrow, fleshy, sometimes terete or subterete leaves, and few- to 

 many-flowered racemes of green and white flowers, with narrow sepals and 

 petals and an ample dilated lip. 



i. B. nodosa (Lindl. Gen. & Sp. Orch., p. 114) was based on the 

 Epidendrum nodosum of Linnaeus (Sp. PL, ed. 1, p. 953), which itself was 

 based on some older descriptions and figures. On looking these up I find 

 that they include two species of Brassavola, while Linnaeus' var. /3 belongs 

 to Broughtonia sanguinea, and must be excluded. Lindley himself had no 

 specimen at this period, and the figures which he cites belong to two 

 species of Brassavola ; but a note shows that the characters were drawn 

 from Jacquin's figure of a plant collected in Baru Island, and as Lindley 

 afterwards applied the name to a specimen gathered in Nicaragua, by C. 

 Wright, there can be no doubt as to the plant intended. Sloane's Jamaica 

 plant must therefore be excluded (as a matter of fact, it belongs to B. 



