EPIDENDRUM SCHOMBURGKII. 
Class. 
GYNANDRIA. 
(Mr. Schomburgk's Epidcndrum.) 
Natural Order. 
ORCHID ACEiE. 
Order. 
MONANDRIA. 
Generic Character. — Calyx wanting. Corolla with 
five oblong spreading petals. Labellum without a horn 
at the base, tubular, embracing the column, with a 
broad erect plate. Column terete, placed below the 
germen, gibbous. Anthers concave. Capsule oblong, 
three-sided, one-celled, three-valved. Seeds numerous, 
extremely minute, roundish. 
Specific Character.— Plant epiphytal. Stem slender, 
a little spotted. Leaves distichous, oblong, obtuse, witli 
blood-red spots. Sepals and petals linear-lanceolate, 
acute, equal, very spreading. Column club-shaped, 
elongated. Labellum three-lobed, thick at the base, with 
an elevated line in the middle ; lateral lobes broad, 
roundish, lacerated ; middle one cuneately triangular, 
curled, acuminate. 
The genus Epidendrum, as we have often intimated, is naturally separable into 
two classes, if habit be taken as the ground of distinction. There is the division 
with pseudo-bulbs, and comparatively long stout stalks to their scapes of flowers, 
which issue either from the base or summit of the pseudo-bulbs ; and there is the 
tribe which have stems, generally long and slender, with dense bunches of blossom 
on shorter stalks. 
To the last-named group belongs the species before us. The rest of its allies 
have, however, for the most part, greenish or pink flowers, wanting showy colours 
in the one instance, and having insufficiently large blossoms, or heads of them, in 
the other, to render them ornamental. This plant is, therefore, quite the gem of 
its class ; and, with E. cinnabarinum, a very nearly related kind, stands among the 
more interesting and beautiful of the order. It has far more ample clusters of 
bloom than the majority of caulescent Epidendra, and the individual flowers are 
much larger than those of the best species, such as E. ellipticum, &c. ; while their 
colour is a deep rich red, with a tinge of yellow in the centre. They remain per- 
fect, too, for a considerable time after expansion, being generally open from one to 
two months. 
It was introduced by Mr. Schomburgk from British Guiana a few years back, 
and sent to Messrs. Loddiges, with whom it has been frequently in bloom, and 
from whose noble collection our drawing was made in the month of July, 1841. It 
is now, likewise, in most other large nursery establishments. 
vol. x. — no. cxiv. R 
