200 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



female flowers of the same species " (Journ. Linn. Soc, xxvii., p. 210). 

 The last sentence proves to have been a too confident assumption, for we 

 now have ocular demonstration of what the second sex is like. It has the 

 general shape of those previously known, but the lip is rather short,. „ 

 measuring six lines high by over ten broad, and is densely spotted inside 

 and out with dark dusky brown, while the sepals and petals are as heavily 

 marked as the lip, the spots moreover being confluent towards the apex of 

 the sepals. The stout column is also speckled all over. It should be 

 added that the males represent a very dark form of the species, the spots 

 being much larger and the green ground colour much more reduced than in 

 Bot. Mag., t. 3262. It would appear that there is also an unspotted form, 

 for in the original drawing of C. umbrosum, Rodr. (Gen. et Sp. Orch. Nov. 

 i., p. 129) the lip of the male flower has the same characteristic shape as in 

 C. trifidum, and no other structural differences can be detected, though, as 

 Rodrigues remarks, both kinds of flower have the same green colour. 



There now remains the question as to what the original Monachanthus 

 vindis really is. I have again compared the flower and drawing with the 

 others preserved at Kew without identifying it. In size and shape it comes 

 nearest to C. macrocarpum, but the sepals and petals are short, broad and 

 obtuse, not at all acuminate, and the coloured drawing does not agree with 

 Bot. Reg., t. 1752, which is known to be the female of this species. The 

 colouring may be a little crude, but the other drawing (Myanthus cernuus) 

 is sufficiently accurate, both in drawing and colour, and there is no reason 

 to doubt their accuracy in this case, especially as the details of shape are 

 borne out by the dried flower. Have we then a species nearly allied to C. 

 macrocarpum growing near Rio de Janeiro ? I do not find evidence of it, 

 though, on the other hand, C. macrocarpum itself extends so far south, for 

 there is at Kew a single male flower collected near there by Miers. It is 

 common in North Brazil, Guiana and Venezuela, extending also to 

 Trinidad. It would be extremely interesting to have the point cleared up, 

 for it seems absurd to have to confess that although collected near Rio, 

 described seventy years ago, and represented by the original dried flower 

 and coloured drawing of the entire plant, yet we remain ignorant of what 

 it really is. And when we remember that the history of this genus forms 

 one of the most romantic chapters in the annals of Orchidology, and that 

 the females of over half the species are still unknown, it seems strange that 

 it should not receive more attention. Fortunately we can report a little 

 progress, and we may hope that collectors and cultivators will not 

 neglect any opportunity of increasing our knowledge of this interesting 

 group of plants. 



R. A. Rolfe. 



