32 CORYANTHES MACRANTHA. 
bulbs a pendulous scape, on which two or three flowers are developed. Each 
flower is placed at the end of a long, stiff, cylindrical furrowed ovary, and when 
expanded, measures something more than six inches from the tip of one sepal to 
that of the opposite one. In colour the sepals are an ochrey yellow, spotted 
irregularly with dull purple ; they have a most delicate texture ; the upper sepal 
falls back from the tip of the ovary, is narrow, and not above one half the length 
of the two lateral ones, which, instead of applying themselves to the lip, as is 
usually the case, turn directly away from it, placing themselves at an acute angle 
with the upper sepal, and n after a while collapsing at their sides till they look some- 
thing like bats wings half at rest. The petals, which are narrowly lanceolate, very 
weak, and much curved at the edge, have the same colour and texture as the sepals 
nearly, and are intermediate in length between the upper one and those at the side ; 
they hang nearly parallel with the column, but are so placed as to conceal in no 
degree the lip, nature taking most especial care to exhibit this strange part in the 
most conspicuous manner. The lip is as fleshy and solid in its texture as the 
petals and sepals are delicate ; it is seated on a deep purple stalk, nearly an inch 
long, and forming an obtuse angle with the column, and consequently an acute 
one with the ovary ; this stalk terminates in a hemispherical greenish-purple cup, or 
rather cap, considering its position ; and the latter, contracting at its front edge, 
extends forward into a sort of second stalk of a very vivid blood colour, the sides 
of which are thinner than the centre, turned back, and marked with four or five 
very deep solid sharp- edged plaits. These plaited edges again expand and form a 
second cup, less lobed than the first, thinning away very much to the edges, of a 
broadly conical figure, with a diameter of at least two inches at the orifice ; this 
second cup is of an ochrey yellow, streaked and spotted with pale crimson, and 
seems intended to catch a watery secretion, which drips into it from two succulent 
horns, which take their origin in the base of the column, and hang over the centre 
of the cup." 
The treatment required for this plant is so similar to that given to Gongoras 
and Stanhopeas, that scarcely any alteration is necessary to be made ; it may be 
described as follows : — In potting, use free fibrous sandy peat, with plenty of 
drainage, build the bulk of soil a trifle above the level of the pot in consequence of 
the pendulous nature of the flexuous scape ; for an illustration of which see wood- 
cut figure. In the spring, when the young buds begin to swell, let it have plenty 
of water and heat, and it will grow and flower very freely. 
