61 
CIRRHOPETALUM auratum. 
Gold-edged Cirrkopetalum. 
GYNANDRIA MONANDRIA. 
Nat. ord. Orchidaceas, § Malaxed. 
CIRREOPETALTJM. Supra 1838. t. 11. 
C. auratum ; pseudobulbis ovatis sulcatis, folio oblongo convexo, floribus 
umbellatis, sepalo supremo petalisque setaceo-acuminatis fulvo-ciliatis 
lateralibus acutis, labello lineari recurvo, columnse auriculis rotundatis 
integris. Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1840. misc. 10 7. — 1843. sub t. 49. 
Among the singular species of this genus the present is 
one of the most interesting. It hangs down from the branch 
of a tree, or a piece of charred wood, which it soon overruns 
with its delicate green roots and egg-shaped furrowed pseudo- 
bulbs. 
The leaves are very thick, deep green above, and convex ; 
stained with purple beneath. The flower-stem is as slender 
as a small thread, and too weak to bear the umbels of flowers, 
which therefore hang down gracefully, and are balanced in 
the air. 
The umbels, as in many others of this genus, are so 
arranged that the flowers are all on one plane, and diverging 
equally from the centre form a circle, whose interior is occu- 
pied by the lower part of the flowers, and whose circumference 
is formed by the long flat strap-shaped lateral sepals, which 
look like so many party-coloured ribbons collected into a 
balloon. 
The flowers themselves have a yellowish ground, striped 
and mottled with crimson. The upper sepal and two petals, 
badly drawn in the figure, are fringed with golden hairs, and 
tapered into a fine point. The lateral sepals are quite desti- 
tute of hairiness, and only faintly stained with purple. 
It differs from C. picturatum in its party-coloured, not 
purple, flowers ; in its petals being far less taper-pointed, and 
December , 1843. 2 c 
