49 
RENANTHERA COCCINEA. 
(CHINESE SCARLKT-FLOW'ERKD AIR PLANT.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
ORCHIDE^. 
Generic Character. — Sepals three, spreading, linear. Petals somewhat obtuse, rather larger than the 
sepals, and undulated. Lip slightly saccate at the base. Pollen masses two. 
Specific Character Epiphyte. Stem leafy, round, twelve feet long, sometimes branched, sending 
forth many long, fleshy, tortuous roots, which fasten or cling so firmly to the wall, or other body 
within reach, as to render it a matter of difficulty to liberate them without injury. Leaves flat, 
fleshy, without veins, disposed in two opposite uniform rows, of a dark shining green colour, each 
more or less notched at the end, and about five inches long by one and a half broad. Floivers 
numerous, produced on a lateral loose panicle, the stalk and branches of which are hard and round. 
Bracteas small, and apparently withered. Ovarium situated at the end of the flower-stalk, of a 
faint red, characterised by six furrows. Sepals spreading, erect, fleshy, of a pale scarlet, obscurely 
and irregularly blotched with a deeper colour. Petals marked with yellow bands of a beautiful 
scarlet ground, and abruptly waved in the middle. Labellum very dwarf, joined with the column, 
three-lobed ; the back lobes yellow and marked with scarlet, the front one reflexed, scarlet, with a 
portion of yellow at the base. Column half round, as long as the labellum, scarlet, marked with 
yellow. Stigma hollowed out, nearly round. Anthers terminal, deep scarlet, blunt, one-celled. 
Pollen masses two, two-lobed behind. 
The merits of this magnificent plant were for a long time only known from the 
statements of a few individuals who travelled in China, together with a figure in the 
possession of the London Horticultural Society, and some remarks in the work of 
Loureiro, a Missionary, published in 1790 ; until a few years ago a plant flowered in 
the gardens at Claremont, from which a beautiful drawing was made for, and inserted 
in, the Botanical Register. The species had been at different times imported from 
China, and recognised amongst orchideous plants for its long leafy stems and fleshy 
veinless leaves ; and from the peculiarity natural to all epiphytes, of attaching 
itself to damp or dry walls, pieces of wood, or any other body within reach of 
its long fleshy tortuous roots. A long time elapsed, after it had become general in 
collections, before a correct notion could be formed of the beauty of the flowers or 
the precise nature of the inflorescence. The reports of all travellers who had seen 
the flowers allowed them to surpass almost every other vegetable product known. 
VOL. IV. — NO. XXXIX. H 
