CYMBIDIUM GIGANTEUM. 
(Gigantic Cymbidium.) 
Clasa. Order. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
ORCHID ACEiE. 
Generic Character.— Perianth coloured. Sepals and 
petals nearly equal, free. Lip sessile, free, without a 
spur, concave, sometimes articulated with the base of 
the column, sometimes slightly connate, undivided or 
tbree-lobed. Column erect, semi-cylindrical. Anthers 
two-celled. Pollen-masses two, often two-lobed at the 
back. 
Specific Character — Leaves narrow, strap-shaped, 
seven-nerved, thick and tough, distichous. Scape nod- 
ding, closely covered at the base with loose imbricated 
striated scales. Bracts short, ovate, acute, scaly. 
Flowers rather closed, tesselated, very large. Sepals 
oblong, acute, erect, many -nerved, nearly equal. Petals 
linear-lanceolate, acute, spreading, rather shorter than 
the sepals. Lip oblong, tapering at the base, where it 
adheres to the column, folded up, three-lobed ; lateral 
lobes entire, fiat, and narrow ; intermediate lobe crisp, 
ciliated ; disk with two converging ciliated lamella;, 
ending in a line of hairs reaching to the point of the 
lip, and bordered by two distant hairy lines on each 
side. Column clavate, thin-edged, smooth, with a 
terminal anther, which adheres firmly to the back and 
opens in front. 
Synonyme. — Limodorumlongi folium; C.iridioides (?); 
not C giganteum of Sweet. 
Treating of the plant which forms the subject of the accompanying delinea- 
tion, Dr. Lindley, in his valuable " Sertum Orchidaceum," writes as follows : — 
" This is one of the most striking of Cymbidiwms, and was well named the 
gigantic, when compared with other known species. It is a native of Nepal and 
Kamaon, where it was discovered by Dr. Wallich, in the year 1821." 
Mr. Gibson, the collector sent out to India some years ago by his Grace the 
Duke of Devonshire, met with it in great abundance in the thick umbrageous 
forests at the foot of the Khoseea hills, growing on the trunks of trees, and 
especially upon those which had begun to evince tokens of decay ; the specimens 
which occupied the hollows of old trees partially filled up with decomposing 
vegetable matter, always presenting the most luxuriant and healthy appearance. 
In the same locality, and flourishing under similar conditions, Mr. Gibson also 
found another species, now cultivated in many collections as C. giganteum, with 
much broader and shorter leaves, and a perfectly erect flowers-pike ; and in all its 
parts inferior to the true C. giganteum. The plant named C. giganteum by Sweet 
is the Cyrtopera gigantea of Dr. Lindley, and is quite a different thing. 
Our plants at Chatsworth were received in 1837, and produced fine nodding 
spikes of flowers about two feet in length, each supporting about sixteen or 
eighteen blossoms, in the beginning of November, 1844, from which the drawing 
was executed. In their wild state they frequently grow somewhat longer, and 
VOL. XII.— NO. CXLIII. I I 
