234 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
interesting, as showing the conditions under which it grows in a wild state. 
We are not aware that it is now in cultivation, but plants were sent by 
Schomburgk to Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, who flowered them, and the 
species was figured by Lindley, in his Sertwm Orchidacewm (t. 26), under the 
name of Huntleya violacea. It also flowered in the collection of G. Barker, 
Esq., of Springfield, though it soon afterwards seems to have disappeared. 
It was discovered for the first time in October, 1837, by Schomburgk, on 
his ascent of the river Essequibo, in British Guiana. On reaching the 
large cataract Cumaka toto, or Silk Cotton Fall, it became necessary to 
unload the coracles and transport the luggage overland, and, while the Indians 
were thus occupied, Schomburgk wandered about one of the small islands 
whose vegetation ‘‘ had that peculiar lively appearance which is so character- 
istic in the vicinity of cataracts, where a humid cloud, the effect of the spray, 
always hovers round them.”” He was attracted by a number of Oncidium 
altissimum in flower, which covered a rocky pile, and then discovered 
_another Orchid, which clothed the tree trunks with vivid green, and it was 
not long before he found one in flower. ‘‘ It was as singular as it was new 
to me,” he observes. ‘‘ The sepals and petals of a rich purple and velvet- 
-like appearance; the helmet, to which form the column bore the nearest 
resemblance, ofthe same colour; the labellum striated with yellow.” 
“In the sequel of my expeditions, I found it generally in the vicinity of 
cataracts, where a humid vapour is constantly suspended, and where the 
rays of the sun are scarcely admitted through the canopy of foliage. I 
traced the Huntleya from the sixth parallel of latitude to the shady moun- 
tains of the Acari chain, near the equator; but in its fullest splendour it 
appeared at one of the small islands among the Christmas cataracts in the 
river Berbice ; and there is a melancholy circumstance connected with the 
plant, which its appearance never fails to recall to my memory. Their 
singular beauty at this spot induced my friend Mr. Reiss, who accompanied 
me as a volunteer during the unfortunate expedition up the river Berbice, to 
draw and paint it on the spot. He was yet occupied with this task when the 
last of our canoes was to descend the dangerous cataract. He arose from 
his occupation, desirous to descend with the Indians in the canoe, although 
against my wish, but he persisted. The canoe approached the fall—it upset 
—and, of thirteen persons who were in it at the time, he was the only one 
who paid the rash attempt with his life. He is now buried opposite that 
island, the richest vegetable productions of which it was his last occupation 
to imitate on paper and in colours. . . . A humid atmosphere and shade are 
the distinguishing features of their habitat.”—Schomb. in Lindl. Sert. Orch., 
t, 26. 
