GLEANINGS AND ORIGINAL MEMORANDA 



Helcia sanguinolenta. Lhulley '. A Peruvian epiphyte of the Orchidaceous order, 

 with greenish flowers banded with brown, and a white lip marked with broken crimson 



veins. Introduced by the Horticultural Society. 

 (Fig. 17£j a, lip magnified; b, column do. • 

 c, pollen-masses.) 



one of the curious and little-known Orchids 

 the Botanical Register (1845), but never 



This 

 described 

 figured. 



It was found among the plants collected by Hartweg for 

 the Horticultural Society, and was supposed to be a species 

 of Trichopilia, of which it lias entirely tbe habit. It bad 

 been collected at Paccba, a miserable village in the Andes of 

 Guayaquil. When it flowered it was seen that, although it 

 certainly approaches nearly to that genus, yet it is in reality 

 an entirely new form. Instead of its column being rolled 

 up in the labellum, it stands erect and clear of it ; instead 

 of the anther having but one cell, it has two ; instead of 

 the anther-bed having two lateral lacerated processes, it is 

 surrounded by a deep fringed border ; finally, instead of the 

 lip being perfectly smooth, continuous, and destitute of all 

 apuendages at the base, it is contracted about the middle, 

 below the contraction furnished with a pair of thick fleshy 

 lobes hollowed out in the middle, and standing erect on 

 each side of the column, without however touching it ; and 

 the space between those lobes, forming the very base of the 

 lip, is a hollow hairy pit. Upon looking at this curious 

 apparatus in front, the anther and column look like an 

 old-fashioned head-dress peeping over one of those starched 

 high collars, such as ladies 

 wore in the days of Queen 

 Elizabeth ; or through a 

 horse-collar decorated with 

 gaudy ribbons ; and this has 

 led to the name, which has 

 been fashioned out of Helcium, 

 a word said to mean the collar 

 of'a horse, though, considering 

 its obvious derivation, one 

 would rather have imagined 



