THE ORCHID REVIEW. 139 
In 1832 Lindley described two new genera from drawings and dried 
specimens in the Herbarium of Sir William Hooker, which had been sent 
from the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, the plants being called respec- 
tively Myanthus cernuus and Monachanthus viridis. Lindley here remarked 
that perhaps Catasetum cristatum would be better referred to Myanthus. 
It is anticipating matters a little to say that on careful investigation 
I discovered the two plants just named to be the male and female forms of 
the species afterwards called Catasetum trifidum, Hook. eek 
Four years later Lindley figured Monachanthus viridis, or what he 
supposed to be such (Bot. Reg., t. 1752), from a plant sent from Wentworth 
by Lord Fitzwilliam, who assured him that it was beyond all doubt an 
accidental sport of Catasetum tridentatum. Lindley, however, was sceptical 
on the point, and contented himself with remarking that he was not aware 
when or by whom it was imported, but that it had probably been mistaken 
for a green form of the common Catasetum tridentatum, and consequently 
no record was kept. It was not until afterwards that he confessed to Lord 
Fitzwilliam’s statement, and we now know that the latter was right. Asa 
matter of fact it is not the original Monachanthus viridis at all. 
The next development was startling in more ways than one. In 
November, 1836, Lindley received from His Grace the Duke of Devon- 
shire an inflorescence of Catasetum cristatum, which ‘he described as one 
of the greatest curiosities that our gardens had ever produced, namely, a 
plant of Myanthus cristatum changing into a Monachanthus, related to 
M. viridis, and combining in its own proper person no fewer than three 
supposed genera—Myanthus, Monachanthus, and Catasetum. The raceme 
bore sixteen flowers, of which the nine upper ones were those of the 
Monachanthus. The plant had flowered twice before without sporting, and 
on this occasion had also a second raceme of normal flowers. Lindley 
never guessed the significance of this so-called sporting, though, no doubt, 
he was right in supposing that a high state of cultivation favoured the 
peculiarity. He also observed that over twenty plants of Myanthus 
barbatus at Chatsworth, and the same number of Monachanthus discolor, 
had never sported, though a Mr. Hillhouse had informed the Duke of 
Devonshire that in Demerara a flower-spike of Catasetum often bore several 
kinds of flowers. The consequence was that Myanthus and Monachanthus 
had to be restored to Catasetum, ‘‘ but which of the species,” Lindley 
remarked, “have their masks on, and which show their real faces, I 
certainly will not presume to guess.” 
Schomburgk introduced a little more confusion, though he came nearer 
to guessing the truth than Lindley. In a paper published in the Trans- 
actions of the Linnean Society (xvii., p. 551, t- 29) he described and figured 
a plant which bore racemes of Myanthus barbatus and Monachanthus 
viridis (so-called) on the same pseudobulb, and also spoke of Monachanthus 
