THE ORCHID REVIEW. 

 CATASETUM OCHKACEUM. 



In my paper on the Sexual forms of Catasetum {Journ. Linn. Soc, xxvii,. 

 pp. 206-225, t. 8) I gave an enumeration of the species of the genus of 

 which both sexes are known, the number being sixteen. Seven others have 

 since appeared, bringing the number up to twenty-three. An additional one 

 may now be added to the list. In the Day Collection of Drawings, xxxviii, 

 t. 35, is a drawing of a Catasetum, with the date September 4th, 1883, and 

 the following note :— " This is a very curious Catasetum, drawn at Messrs. 

 H. Low & Co.'s, who sent a scape with flowers to Prof. Reichenbach. He 

 returned a Post Card thus : — ' Your flower is of the fairer sex, a lady flower, a 

 Monachanthus. It is very well answering the Doctor's (Lindley) Catasetum 

 fuliginosum, Bot. Reg., 1841, Misc., 168. Now it is quite possible that 

 another time the flowers of C. ochraceum appear on the same plant, the 

 gallant male with the long tendrils ! ! ' " 



Singularly enough Mr. Day had drawn C. ochraceum on July 20th 

 previous (Day Coll., xxxiv, t. 91), noting it as follows: — "The ugliest of 

 the genus that I have ever seen. I saw it in flower at Messrs. Hugh Low 

 & Co's., who gave me the spike to draw. The plant is just like other 

 Catasetums, but the bulbs are more slender than some. Labellum very 

 fleshy, veined inside with nearly parallel green veins. Mr. Low says he 

 believes it was imported from New Granada." He afterwards made the 

 additional note: — "This is the male flower of Catasetum fuliginosum,. 

 Lindl., which is drawn in Sc. Bk., xxxviii., 35. See that and Prof. H. G. 

 Reich. 's remarks thereon." 



Catasetum ochraceum was originally described by Lindley in 1844 

 {Bot. Reg., xxx, Misc. p. 44). It had been sent from Hacienda del 

 Hospicio, in the province of Bogota, by Hartweg, and flowered in the 

 Horticultural Society's garden. Mr. Day's male flowers are correctly 

 named, and I have no doubt that his females represent the other sex of the 

 species, but I think that they cannot belong to Catasetum fuliginosum. 



C. fuliginosum was described three years earlier than the preceding 

 (Bot. Reg., xxvii, Misc. p. 78), from a plant which flowered in the Duke of 

 Northumberland's collection, at Syon House. It bore a scape of eight 

 flowers. Nothing seems to have been known of its history. Lindley 

 remarked that it had quite the habit of C. tridendatum, and described the 

 flowers as deep green in colour, " spotted with a dull blackish purple, so as 

 to look as if they were soiled with soot," the sepals and petals spotted, and 

 the lip stained with purple. Mr. Day's females are quite unlike this, being 

 unspotted, with the sepals and petals dull greenish yellow, and the lip 

 more ochre-coloured ; in fact, scarcely differing from the males in thi-~ 

 respect. I think it may be safely said that we now know both sexes of 



