90, 91 
CATASETUM tridentatum. 
Tridentate Catasetum. 
GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA.— Nat. Ord. ORCHIDEJE. 
Gen. Char. — Corolla resupinata ; foliolis quinque ; subaequalia ; labello sac* 
cato-concavum. Columna bicornis ; cornua retrorsa, filiformia, arcuato- 
conniventia. Anthera operculata, columna interne infra apicem atte- 
nuato-subulatum insidens. Pollinis massce duae, pedicello communi suf- 
fultae. — Rich. MSS. in Kunth. 
Parasiticum. Folia membranacea, ex apice bulbi erumpentia. Pedunculi 
radicales, uni- pauci- multiflori, bracteati. Flores magni. 
Catasetum tridentatum ; petalis duobus interioribus maculatis, labello 
tridentato. 
Whole plant from a foot and a half to two feet in height. 
Root composed of many, large, white, thick, smooth fibres. Bulb five or six 
inches in length, oblong, subcompressed, covered at first with the sheath- 
ing bases of the leaves, afterwards naked, green, marked with reddish 
rings where the leaves have been inserted, and longitudinally striated. 
Leaves 6 to 10 inches long, broadly lanceolate, keeled, striated, undu- 
lated, bright green, tapering towards the base, but enlarging again very 
considerably, so as to form the sheathing of the bulb ; these sheaths are 
of a more membranaceous texture than the leaves themselves, paler 
green, and very closely striated. 
Scape arising from the root by the side of the bulb, twelve or fourteen inches 
in height, cylindrical, green, jointed, and furnished with short membra- 
naceous sheaths, which are slit on one side, terminated at the extremity 
by a spike of about a dozen very large and beautiful flowers, which are 
resupinate, and of a highly remarkable structure. 
The Jive petals which compose the corolla are subconnivent, and form an arch 
over the colum of fructification ; of these the three outer ones are lan- 
ceolate, concave, green ; the two inner ones are broadly ovate, concave, 
subacuminate, yellowish-brown, elegantly spotted with purple. Lip 
large, cucullate, ventricose, its margin entire, except in the front, where 
there are three obtuse teeth, the outside faintly and obliquely striated ; 
its colour is a bright yellow, greenish at the summit ; there are some- 
times a few very indistinct purple spots within. Column united by its 
base with the back of the lip, an inch long, curved forward, yellow, the 
back convex, the front concave, its extremity suddenly acuminated, and 
having a little claw-like process at the very point. From the margin or 
front, and near the centre, proceed downwards two slender filiform pro- 
cesses, nearly an inch long, which curve towards each other, and are 
placed within the lip. Stigma concave, subquadrate, viscid. Anther oper- 
culiform (deciduous), and applied to the upper attenuated part of the 
column, lanceolate, yellow-green, having within at its base two cells. 
Celb containing each a large, spherical, waxy pollen-mass, 2-lobed at the 
back, united by their bases to an oblong, brownish footstalk, whose mar- 
gins are recurved, and whose base is fixed upon a thickened quadrangu-r 
lar gland. The germen, about an inch long, is slightly curved upwards^ 
furrowed, not at all twisted. 
VOL. IL 
