THE ORCHID REVIEW. 229 
is said to have been sent from La Guayra, with Cattleya Mossia and 
numerous other species, in the April previous, by Mr. Charles McKenzie, a 
collector for Messrs. Low, of Clapton Nursery. It is rather curious that 
the same firm should now re-introduce it after an interval of fifty-seven 
years. - In February, 1840, a fine figure appeared in Lindley’s Sertum 
Orchidaceum (t. 33), where it is said to be a Mexican plant, though a note 
records that it has also been found in La Guayra by one of the collectors 
employed by Messrs. Low & Co., of Clapton. The Mexican habitat, 
however, is evidently erroneous, and it is highly probable that both plants 
came from the same source. The plant bears a pendulous raceme about 
14 feet long, with from two to three dozen large flowers, the sepals and 
petals being pale green with many light brown spots. Lindley remarked :— 
“Surely it is one of the most curious productions of nature in her wildest 
mood. Did any one ever see such a flower before? Which is the top, 
which is the bottom? What are we to call that long club foot ? which is 
cloven too ; and what the crooked fingers daggled with blood, which spread 
from the middle of one of the leaves, as if about to clutch at something? 
And what, moreover, can they all be for?” But this was nearly sixty years 
ago, and these points have all been cleared up since. It is well known 
that this sportive genus was a standing puzzle to Lindley and others. 
Wagener also collected it near Caracas at 4,500 feet elevation (Bonplandia, 
II., p. 19), and one of the plants flowered at Berlin. Messrs. Backhouse, 
of York, also flowered a single plant in 1888. The female flowers are still 
unknown. There yet remains the handsome C. aureum, a native of 
Chiriqui, and probably the handsomest species in the genus, to be 
re-introduced, though now the culture of these plants is better understood 
it would be worth while for someone to make an effort to secure it. 
Plenty of light and heat when growing, and then a good rest ina 
comparatively dry state seems to ensure their success. 
R.A. R. 
a 
RENANTHERA IMSCHOOTIANA. 
essrs. F. Sander & Co. have obtained 
e Orchid, whose history was given at 
p- 208 of the last volume of this work. These imported plants confirm 
what was previously recorded—namely, that it flowers as a dwarf plant, like 
a Vanda, but they also show that the inflorescence is sometimes branched. 
A plant recently described as R. Papilio (King and Prain in Journ. Asiat. 
Soc. Bengal, \xiv., 1896, p- 328) is synonymous. It is a native of Assam, 
and some years ago dried flowers and a living plant were sent by Lieut. E. 
Ir is interesting to record that M 
some plants of the above handsom: 
