CYMBIDIUM DEVONIANUM. 
Class. 
GYNANDRIA. 
(The Duke of Devonshire's Cymbidium.) 
Natural Order. 
ORCHIDACEiE. 
Order. 
MONANDRIA, 
Generic Character. — Perianth showy. Petals and 
sepals nearly equal, free. Lahellum sessile, free, without 
a spur, concave, sometimes articulated with the base of 
the column, sometimes slightly connate, undivided or 
three-lobed. Column erect, semi-cylindrical. Anthers 
two-celled. Pollen-masses two, often two-lobed at the 
back. 
Specific Character. — Plant epiphytal. Leaves ovate- 
lanceolate, a foot or more in length, with the base of the 
petioles covering the pseudo-bulbs, having a strong 
midrib, and of a leathery texture. Scape pendulous, a 
foot or eighteen inches long, many-flowered, with large 
sheathing bracts. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, acute. Petals 
broader. Lip ovate, rather obtuse, purplish crimson. 
This very beautiful addition to the genus Cymbidium, which is named after 
His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, was found by his Grace's collector, Mr. Gibson, 
on the Khoseea hills, in India, and introduced to Chats worth in 1837. It bloomed 
there in the months of March and April, of the present year. 
Mr. Gibson gathered it from the trunks of decayed trees, or from the hollows or 
cavities of those old specimens which had become filled up with vegetable mould. 
In England, it grows very freely on any half-decayed block of wood, suspended in 
the Orchidaceous house, and kept in a shady moist place, at a good distance from 
the glass. 
The species has roundish pseudo-bulbs, and throws from them fine racemes of 
bloom, from a foot to eighteen inches in length, which hang down after the manner 
of C. aloifolium. It is not much unlike the latter plant in the hue of its sepals 
and petals, which appear to be of a brownish cream colour ; but the lip, which 
is their most conspicuous feature, is of a beautiful purplish crimson tint, and very 
rich. A specimen which was exhibited in April at the Horticultural Society's 
Rooms, had been in flower two or three weeks ; and as the colour of the lip, like 
that of some species of Calanthe, changes and fades after the flowers have been open 
for some time, it was then of a dull brownish shade, which is by no means pleasing. 
In its earlier stages, however, it is very showy and brilliant ; and this circumstance 
will place it before any of the other species. 
As it will not be easy to furnish it with a partially decomposed log of wood 
vol. x. — no, cxiii. - o 
