14 
COMBRETACEiE NEW ORCHIDEiE. 
slightly sprinkled ; but be careful that the water is about the temperature of the 
house, or the leaves and roots are liable to be injured. If this be attended to they 
will soon fill their pots with roots. When this is the case, shift them into others, 
about four inches wide at top, and the same deep. 
When they have done flowering, they must receive very little water: this 
decrease of water, however, should be gradual, so that at the time the leaves are 
decayed, the soil in the pots should be kept quite dry. After the tops are dead, 
place them in a cooler situation, where they will receive no moisture, until about 
the beginning of February, when they should be potted and again plunged in the 
bark bed, where they will flower beautifully. 
COMBRETACEZE. — Genus Combretum. 
Combretum grandiflorum. — (Large-flowered Combretum .) — This is one 
of the many noble plants with which the once-fatal colony of Sierra Leone abounds. 
It is a scrambling plant, raising itself by means of a very curious kind of hook with 
which nature has ingeniously supplied it. At first sight, one would wonder what this 
hook can be ; for nothing like spine, or prickle, or tendril, can be discovered upon 
the branches : for want of these, it is necessary that their place should be supplied 
by some special provision, which is of the following kind. When the leaves are 
first fully formed, they are seated upon a foot-stalk of a very common appearance ; 
but, after a time, they fall away, leaving the leaf-stalk behind : the latter does not 
wither up, but gradually lengthens, hardens, sharpens, and curves, till at last it 
becomes a powerful hook, admirably adapted for catching hold of the branches of 
any tree that it may be near, and thus elevating the plant from the earth. These 
hooks, however, are not to be found on those grown in our stoves, but only in the 
woods of Sierra Leone, its native habitation. — Bot. Reg. t. 1631. 
The C. comosum , purpureum , and all the other species of this genus, require 
similar treatment to the grandijiorum : they are all very beautiful, particularly the 
purpureum , which makes a most splendid show at the time of flowering. They all 
thrive well in a mixture of loam and peat : cuttings will root freely if planted in a 
light soil or sand, and covered with a hand-glass, and placed in the moist heat of a 
good hot-bed. A good way, also, to obtain fine plants in a short space of time, is 
to layer some of the branches, which will soon strike root. After they are rooted, 
pot them oflf in 60-sized pots, and place them in a shady part of the stove. 
NEW AND BEAUTIFUL ORCHIDEiE. 
Cychnochis Loddigesii is a beautiful and an extraordinary plant. The 
flowers are large and beautifully spotted with red. It is a native of Surinam, 
whence it was sent to Messrs. Loddiges, by Mr. Lance, in 1830, in whose stove it 
flowered in May, and again in the winter of 1832. Dr. Lindley gave it the pre- 
sent name, and published it in his excellent work on the “ Genera and Species of 
