THE ORCHID WORLD. 



75 



ErIA CORONARIA (i'RICHOSMA 

 SUAVIS). — The above photograph 

 of this interesting Orchid, known 

 to many as Trichosma suavis, has 

 been kindly sent by Sir John 

 Edwards-Moss, Bart., Roby Hall, 

 i orquay, in whose collection this 

 grand specimen has produced 

 many fine spikes of bloom, some 

 having as many as six flowers. 



This species was first mentioned 

 by Lindley, who described it in the 

 Botanical Register of 1841 under 

 the name Coelogyne coronaria, 

 with the remark that it came from 

 the Chirree district of the Khosea 

 hills of India, where it was found 

 by Gibson, when in that country 

 collecting for the Duke of Devon- 

 shire. 



The following year, 1842, he 

 published a figure of it in the same 

 work, and remarked : " When this plant was 

 sent to me from Chatsworth I too hastily 

 referred it to the genus Coelogyne, misled by 

 a certain similarity of appearance and struc- 

 ture. It is so very different m several 

 circumstances, that I feel obliged to recognise 

 m it a genus distinct from any hitherto de- 

 scribed." He gave it the name Trichosma 

 suavis, the Sweet-scented Hair Orchis. 



Gibson found it growing upon trees in 

 densely-shaded woods near the summit of the 

 hills. The strong perfume, somewhat resemb- 

 ling Melic-grass, is highly esteemed by the 

 wood-cutting natives, who are fond of adorn- 

 ing their hair with its blossoms, and it was 

 th's custom that gave Gibson the clue to its 

 discovery. 



Lindley, however, in 1859, finally removed 

 this species to Eria, of which genus he formed 

 for it the section Trichosma, and recorded it 

 in the Journal of the Liimean Society, III., 52, 

 as Eria suavis. Griffith has given it the name 

 Eria cylindropoda. 



King and Pantling, in Orchids of the 

 Sikkim-Himnlaya, state " There is, therefore, 

 good authority in favour of treating this 

 plant as an Eria rather than as the solitary 

 member of a distinct genus. When Lindley 



^Tia coronaria {Trichosma suavis). 



changed the generic name from Coelogyne to 

 Trichosma, he ought to have kept up the 

 specific name coronaria. In consequence of 

 his not having done so, the authorship of the 

 species as an Eria falls to Reichenbach filius." 

 See Gardeners' C hronicle, 1876, I., 234. 



The plant requires to be kept moist during 

 the whole of the year, but a high temperature 

 IS not recommended, excellent cultural results 

 having been obtained when it has been grown 

 m the cool-house. 



PELORIA IN ORCHIDS. 



The term peloria, first used by Linnaeus, is 

 now applied by botanists to all flowers which 

 pass from irregularity to regularity. The lip 

 cf an Orchid is really a petal which has 

 become irregular in form, iind when, as some- 

 times happens, this re-assumes the shape of 

 the petals the flower becomes regular ; it is 

 very possible that this represents an ancestral 

 condition of the flower. 



In other in.stances the two petals have 

 assumed the form of the lip, making three lips 

 in all, whence Reichenbach's term "trilabellia." 

 In such cases when the flower becomes regular 



