38 
ORNITHIDIUM coccineum. 
Scarlet Ornitkidium» 
GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA — Nat. Ord. ORCHIDEJS. 
CjEN. Char. — LaheUum sessile cucuUatum cum basi columnae connatum. Pe- 
tala conniventia. Massce pollinis 4, obliquae, postice sulcata?. — Br. 
Omithidium coccineum, Salisb. in Hort. Soc. Trans, v. i. p. 293 — Br. m 
Hort. Kew. ed. 2. v. 5. p. 210. 
Cymbidium coccineum, Willd. Sp. Pi v. iv. p. 94>.—Bot. Mag. t 1437- 
Stem frequently a foot or more in height, here and there beset with green 
oblong bulb-like processes, and with the brown sheathing bases of old 
leaves ; the extremity alone producing a tuft of long, ensiform, flexuose, 
somewhat striated green leaves, whose base is swoln, and slightly gib- 
bous. 
From the axils of the leaves arise several beautiful scarlet ^^ower*, borne upon 
long, solitary, drooping footstalks, which are jointed, and furnished with 
a long sheath at each joint, green, except beneath the flower, where the 
sheaths are red and swelled. 
Divisions of the perianth connivent, the 3 outer ones ovato-actuninate, very 
concave, the 2 inner ones shorter and acute, the 6th or lip smaller than 
the rest, ovato-lanceolate, waved, acute, with a swelling on the upper side 
near the base ; the sides, below the middle, projecting into two wings, 
and embracing the column to Avhich the base itself is united. Column 
yellow, shorter than the lip, slightly curved, nearly horizontal, truncate 
at the extremity, furnished with a moveable lid (the Anther), like an 
operculum, and attached by a single point behind ; this Anther is conical> 
obtuse and gibbous. If it be removed before the expansion of the flower, 
it will be found to contain 2 cells, each with 2 masses of pollen ; if it be 
removed after expansion, the four masses of pollen will be seen fixed by 
their lower extremity to the centre of the truncated extremity of the co- 
lumn. Each pollen-mass is granular, at length waxy, between ovate and 
roundish, nearly white, having on one side a furrow or depression, which 
Mr Brown has made to constitute one of the generic characters. Stigma 
small, concave, viscid. Germen scarlet, very narrow, and much atte« 
nuated into the footstalk. 
VOL. I. 
K 
