264: THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
CORYANTHES WOLFII. 
It is with great pleasure that we record the flowering, in July last, of this 
remarkable plant, we believe for the first time in Europe, in the Royal 
Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, under the care of Mr. F. W. Moore, A.LS, 
So far as we can ascertain, it has never been described, though Lehmann has — 
published a note about it in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, as the first member of 
a new section of the genus, with stiff, upright flower-spikes. Mr. Lehmann 
writes :— a 
Coryanthes Wolfii was named by me in honour of Professor Dr. Wolf, formerly of Gua- 
yaquil, now of Dresden. In his house I had the pleasure of seeing, examining, and sketch 
ing the first flowers of this marvellous plant, although it was known to me many years 
previously as an Ecuadorean species. It grows very sparingly, mostly on cacao trees, all 
over the littoral districts of the Guayas, where it flowers in February and March, when 
these level lands are mostly inundated. During this season it is beyond the power of man 
to penetrate the woods there—a circumstance that accounts for the plant not having been 
seen before. It produces thick upright flower-spikes 40 to 50 cm, high, with three to six 
large, wonderfully-constructed flowers, which are yellow, mottled, and stained with 
brownish red. 
Myrmica, possessed of a strong aromatic smell, and which bites very severely, $0 that It 
requires some courage to meddle with the plant. These ants seems to be indispensable to 
the well-being of the plant ; for if these animals do not collect around the roots, it appeats_ 
not to do well. Even in a cultivated state, as well as in the house of my friend, Dr. Wolf 
at Guayaquil, as in my own country residence, I have observed the same facts. of 
nothing Surpasses the flowers. The very peculiar organisation of the whole flower, the : 
position each organ assumes in relation to another, the secretion of a sweetish fluid always 
retained in great quantity in the bucket—all is highly interesting, and invites both to sil : 
and investigation. . : 
Mr. Lehmann stated that a few living plants had been sent to the Liver : 
pool Horticultural Company, and it is probably one of these which x : 
Moore has acquired. The species is certainly very remarkable, especially 
for its flat, or slightly concave, perfectly solid hood, in which respect 
comes next to C. elegantium, Lind. and Rchb. f., which also has af eer 
Scape, which M. Lehmann has evidently overlooked. In every other species 
the hood is helmet-shaped, and hollow underneath, as is Lehmann’s secol™ 
Species, C. Mastersiana, so that C. elegantium would appear to be 4 iat 
ally of C. Wolfii. The colour is as stated by Lehmann. The horns - e 
base of the column are proportionately large, being 5 lines long, while ? 3 
hood is only 9 lines broad. The flower is rather smaller than any P™ 
viously known. It is to be hoped that it will prove amenable to cultivation 
in spite of the absence of ants. It should be treated like a Stanhope 
Coryanthes Wolfii, Lehm. in Gard. Chron., 1891, ii. p- 483- 
