THE ORCHID WORLD. 



[April-May, igi6. 



CORYANTHES MACRANTHA. 



THIS strange species was first described 

 by Sir William Hooker from 

 specimens sent to him by Mr. 

 I.ockhart from Caracas, In 1836 a plant 

 flowered in Mr. Knight's nursery at Chelsea, 

 and during the following season in the 

 Chatsworth collection, and such was the 

 extraordinary form the flowers presented, 

 that wonder and surprise were created in 

 all who were favoured with an opportunity 

 of seeing them. 



Dr. Lmdley has well described this species 

 {Bot. Reg. t. 1 841): — "The plant has the 

 habit of a Stanhopea, and pushes forth from 

 the base of the pseudo bulbs a pendulous 

 scape, on which two or three flowers are 

 developed. Each flower is placed at the 

 end of a long, stiff, cylindrical furrowed 



ovary, and when expanded measures 

 something more than six inches from the 

 tip of one sepal to that of the opposite one. 

 In colour the sepals are an ochry-yellow, 

 spotted irregularly with dull purple ; they 

 have a most delicate texture ; the upper 

 sepal falls back from the tip of the ovary, 

 IS narrow, and not above one half the length 

 of the two lateral ones, which, instead of 

 applying themselves to the hp, as is usually 

 the case, turn directly away from it, placing 

 themselves at an acute angle with the upper 

 sepal, and after a while collapsing at their 

 sides till they look something like bats' 

 wings half at rest. 



" The petals which are narrowly lanceolate, 

 very weak, and much curved at the edge, 

 have the same colour and texture as the 

 sepals, and are intermediate in length 

 between the upper one and those at the 



