30 



CYCNOCHES LODDIGESII. 



which it belongs. If, however, they possess no brilliancy of colour, their arrange- 

 ment in a flexuose, pendulous raceme is particularly graceful ; while the odour 

 which they exhale (especially in the morning) is peculiarly grateful. The sepals 

 are brownish- green, marked with brownish-red spots ; the petals are similar in 

 colour, but less distinctly marked. The lip (which is white, with a few spots of 

 brownish-red) is particularly conspicuous, its glossy surface giving it very much 

 the appearance of enamel; the apex is thinner, and assumes a greenish-yellow 

 colour ; the claw is white, spotted with dark red. The column is dark purple, 

 with a yellowish apex. The anther is membranaceous, and almost pellucid. The 

 clinandrium is 2-horned behind, the horns falcate, compressed, and bent forwards 

 upon the anther. The pollen-masses (which have usually been described as 

 furrowed behind) we find to be hollow bodies ; the supposed furrows being distinct 

 joerforations. 



Our drawing was made from a fine specimen in the collection of George 

 Barker, Esq., of Springfield. It is said to have been first sent to this country 

 from the woods of Surinam, by J. H. Lance, Esq., to whom we are indebted for 

 the introduction of many other exceedingly rare and interesting plants. The 

 generic name, Cycnoches (which is derived from kvkvos, a swan), was given to this 

 extraordinary plant by Dr. Lindley, as expressive of the gracefully bent form of 

 the slender column ; the specific name in compliment to Messrs. Loddiges, the 

 distinguished nurserymen, of Hackney. It requires not, indeed, the aid of a 

 fanciful imagination to trace the strong resemblance which the flowers of many 

 orchideous plants bear to some animal, reptile, or insect : accordingly, among our 

 British species we have the green-man orchis, the monkey and the lizard orchis ; 

 the butterfly Habenaria ; the fly, the spider, the drone, and the iee-ophrys ; the 

 last of which bears flowers so strikingly like the insect after which it is named, as 

 to be easily mistaken for it. 



The reflective mind will naturally be disposed to inquire for what purpose our 

 globe can have had its meadows, its marshes, and its forests adorned with these 

 orchideous plants. They are a very extensive tribe ; amounting, it is supposed, 

 to not less than 1500 species ; and yet they are apparently of little value either to 

 man or animals. No important medicinal properties have been discovered in 

 them ; no poison has been detected in them ; nor are we aware of any useful 

 purpose (with very few exceptions) to which they have ever been applied. The 

 root of Bletia verecunda is said to be stomachic ; some of the species, as the 

 Catasetums, Cyrtopodiums, &c, contain a viscid juice, from which the inhabitants 

 of South America prepare a vegetable glue ; and from the tubers of a species of 

 Eulophia, according to Royle, is obtained the nutritive substance' called Salep. 

 Let us not, however, in the pride of our philosophy, be tempted to imagine that 

 ought, even the meanest plant, has been made in vain ; we have still much, very 

 much to expect from vegetable chemistry, which will doubtless, in due time, make 

 many valuable additions to our present stock of knowledge on this subject. But 



