NEW AND RARE PLANTS, 
239 
evidently intended to g^row upon places where the quantity of nnould is insufficient 
to cover them ; they lengthen, independently of their growth^, at the point, like the 
aerial roots of other epiphytal Orchidece, and differ from those of other oncidiums, 
only in being of a greenish yellow colour. The leaves spread from a very short, 
woody, annulated root-stock, and are about a foot in length on the average ; they 
are of a broadly oblong figure, of a leathery consistence, are nearly flat, a little 
curved back at the point, and have a light green colour, faintly mottled with purple. 
The flowers are disposed in a short-branched rigid panicle, elevated on a stalk not 
quite so long as the longest leaves ; it is about six or nine inches long, and densely 
covered with flowers, which sometimes assume a corymbose, sometimes a racemose 
arrangement. The flowers when expanded measure an inch and three quarters 
from the tip of their back sepal to the point of their lip ; they emit a delicious 
fragrance, resembling that of the garden pink. The sepals are oblong, concave, 
obtuse, a little waved and greenish yellow at the edge, bright yellow in the middle, 
and regularly marked with broad blotches of crimson, which run together near the 
base. The two petals are similar to the sepals. The lip is bright violet, darkest at 
the lower half ; at the base it is prolonged on each side into a triangular tooth, and 
in the middle of the base there are three nearly equal tubercles, which towards the 
column terminate a ridge that gradually lowers, and then diappears at the expanded 
portion of the lip ; above the base it is narrow, it then expands again into a broad, 
thin, light purple, somewhat truncated and toothed extremity. The column has an 
oblique, rounded ear-like appendage on each side, and it is capped by a rich 
crimson anther. Such was the specimen from which the drawing was taken ; 
but it was far inferior to the one which I have just seen (June 29th, 1836,) in 
the rich collection of epiphytes, belonging to the Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting. 
This plant, which I regard as the most perfect instance of successful cultivation I 
have yet witnessed among epiphytes, had leaves eighteen inches long, and upwards 
of thirty flowers two inches and a quarter in expansion, with all the markings of 
the sepals and petals of the richest chocolate brown, and of the lip of the deepest 
violet. In fragrance there was a resemblance to the spicy odour of that sweetest of 
all flowers, Aerides cortiutum. 
" In the Society's garden this plant is cultivated along with other epiphytes in a 
damp hothouse, facing the north ; it is planted in a mixture of sandy peat, pot- 
sherds, and decayed wood, and under these circumstances it thrives very well. 
" Mr. Lance has favoured me with the following account of the discovery and 
subsequent management of this remarkable plant in its native country. The first 
specimen of this splendid epiphyte I discovered, was growing on the trunk of a 
large tamarind tree, in a noble avenue of those trees close to the Government 
House in Surinam. I took it home with me, and planted it in a pot filled with 
rotten pieces of wood and a little light earth ; but though it remained alive, and 
flowered once or twice, it did not thrive, but wasted away and became less. I 
afterwards found a great number of the plants in diff"erent parts of the colony ; they 
were generally attached to the stems or branches of the tamarind, the sapodilla, or 
the calabash trees, appearing to prefer those to any other ; however, on being tied 
to the branches of the orange, the soursop, the mammee, and even the Brugmansia 
