31 
CORYANTHES MACRANTHA. 
(large-flowerkd coryanthes.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
ORCHID ACEtE. 
Generic Character. — -Petals five, three exterior ones most spreading and vcllexed, of which the side 
ones are the largest ; the two inner ones much smaller, erect. Column cylindrical at the base, two- 
cleft at the summit, truncate, two-winged, and otherwise prolonged in a ridge on each side. Label- 
lum cup-shaped, stalked, appendage very large, helmet- shaped, three-toothed, pedunculate, in part 
enveloping the column. Anthers terminal, their extremities of a cover form. Pollen masses 
two, ovate, with compressed margins. 
Specific Character.— Leaves noble, lanceolate. Pseudo-bulbs ovately conical, high, furrowed^ 
Labellum plaited on both sides, folds deflexed. 
Synonyms. — Gongora macrantha. Hooker^s BoL Misc. ii. p. 151, t, 80. 
Coryanthes macrantha. Bot. Mag, p. 3102. 
The first account we have of this strange species of Orchidacese is in Sir 
William Jackson Hooker^s Botanical Miscellany, where it is figured from specimens 
preserved in spirits sent him by Mr. Lockhart from the Caraccas. In 1836, a 
plant flowered in Mr, Knight's nursery in the King's Road^ since which flowers 
have been produced in other collections in this country ; and in 1837 a plant at 
Chatsworth flowered in the manner here represented ; and such was the extraor- 
dinary form the flowers presented, that (as was the case with the visitors when the 
blossoms were first seen in Trinidad) wonder and surprise was created in all who 
were favoured with an opportunity of seeing tliem. The plant and flowers are 
thus described by Dr. Lindley in the Bot. Reg. p. 1841. "The plant has the 
habit of a StanJiopea or a Gongora^ and pushes forth from the base of its pseudo- 
