145 
/ 
SACCOLABIUM DENTICULATUM. 
(toothletted saccolabium.) 
class. order. 
GYNANDRIA. MONANDRIA. 
natural order. 
ORCHIDACEjE. 
Generic Character. — Vide Vol. vi. p. 97. 
Specific Character — Plant epiphytal, caulescent. Stem strong, erect, slightly zigzag on account of the 
joints, which are scarcely half an inch from each other, bearing pendulous roots towards the base. 
Leaves large, oblong, acute, partially embracing the stem at the lower end, dark green. Racemes 
protruding laterally, many-flowered. Peduncles rather more than an inch long, very stout, drooping 
a little at the extremity. Sepals and petals similar to each other, oblong, nearly obtuse, greenish 
yellow, profusely dotted with reddish brown. Labellurn large, with a yellow pouch, expanding into 
a white open margin, which is minutely toothletted. 
In flowers, as in every other class of interesting objects, there are two kinds of 
beauty. The one, in the plenitude of its existence, fixes our attention, and posi- 
tively commands attachment ; while the other is not so readily discovered, and 
requires to be searched after, as well as fully examined, ere it creates any decided 
impression in its favour. And if it be true that the pleasure which results from 
the exercise of our faculties is more grateful than that which intuitively seizes us, 
the delight occasioned by witnessing a flower whose charms lie concealed from 
vulgar gaze, must, when weighed against that produced by the exhibition of a 
more gaudy blossom, be at least equal in intensity, and much more calculated to 
endure. 
There are not a few of those who even profess to be lovers of Nature, to whom 
the minuter graces with which she so richly studs our earth are as yet a hidden 
treasure. They stoop not to scrutinize the finer forms of vegetable being, much 
less to avail themselves of the optician's assistance by subjecting them to a magni- 
fying process ; and hence the more delicate and refined emotions, arising from this 
richly-remunerative study, are to them completely unknown. We recommend 
such a pursuit, however, to all who have taste enough to discern the higher beau- 
VOL. VII. NO. LXXIX. U 
