234 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
fifteen ot the well-known purple male flowers of Cycnoches Egertonianum, 
and soon afterwards the other plant was seen to be showing for flower. 
As the raceme progressed a difference was noticeable, and as the buds 
developed it became evident that they belonged to the other sex. Early in 
June the flowers expanded, and a matter which has long been doubtful 
can now be set at rest. This raceme was very short, and bore only two 
flowers, about four times as large as the males, very fleshy in texture, and 
entirely green. The lip was ovate and quite entire, and the column very 
short and stout, with well-developed fleshy wings. In short, so utterly 
diverse in appearance were the two, that one can understand the incredulity 
of a former generation in believing it possible that they could be produced 
by the same plant. Sixty years ago the above facts would have been 
treated as romance. 
The species was figured and described by Mr. Bateman in 1842, and 
now that the question can be cleared up it may be interesting to repeat its 
history in the author's own words :—‘‘Among Mr. Skinner’s earliest 
Guatemalan collections attention was particulary directed to the specimens 
of a plant, which to the habit of a Cycnoches joined the long pendulous 
stems of a Gongora, and for the possession of which, in a living state, no 
small anxiety was entertained. Some plants were speedily transmitted by 
Mr. Skinner, but these, on flowering, proved to be merely the old C. ventri- 
cosum. A mistake was of course suspected, and Mr. Skinner, being again 
applied to, sent over a fresh supply of plants, for the authenticity of which 
he vouched ; but these were scarcely settled in the stove when flowers of 
C. ventricosum were again produced. Mr. Skinner being importuned for 
the third time, and being then on the point of returning to this country, 
determined to take one of the plants under his special protection during the 
voyage, which, flowering on the passage, seemed to preclude the possibility 
of further confusion or disappointment. The specimens produced at sea 
were exhibited, and the plant itself placed in the stove at Knypersley, where 
it commenced growing with the utmost vigour. The season of flowering 
soon arrived, but brought with it a recurrence of the former scene of 
astonishment and vexation, for the blossoms, instead of those of the 
coveted novelty, were not distinguishable from the old C. ventricosum. 
These were still hanging to the stem when the inexplicable plant sent forth 
a spike of a totally different character, and which was, in fact, precisely 
similar to the specimens gathered in Guatemala, and to those produced on 
the voyage. It is, at present, impossible to attempt any explanation of so 
strange a phenomenon, especially on the supposition that the two forms of 
flower are analagous to the male and female blossoms of other tribes, for C- 
ventricosum alone not infrequently perfects seeds. The species (if as such 
it may be regarded) was named in honour of Sir Philip Egerton, before any 
of its eccentricities had been discovered, otherwise the compliment might 
