Gynandria, 
( 31 ) 
TRANSCENDANT EPIDENDRUM. 
A ll Things confpire, which can be valuable in a Plant, to recommend 
this to our Regard, and eftablilh its juft Title to the nameTranfcendant. 
We admire fome for Colour, others for Smell 5 fome for the pleafihg 
Wildnefs of their Growth, and many for their vaft and numerous Flowers : 
this has all. Its Height is determin’d only by that of the Tree on which it 
climbs ; for like our Ivy, it takes hold of every Thing, winding its tough Stalk 
round the Trunk, and fcattering its Divifions among the Branches. The Plant 
from whence the Specimen was taken, cover’d a Tree equal to our talleft Elms, 
and many hundred Flowers were open upon it together. 
• The Leaves are not without their Beauty, for they. play in many Undula- 
tions, and have a. fine Colour : the Flowers are as fingular as any Thing in 
Nature, ' The Chinese, from their Figure, give the Plant a Name which fig- 
nifies the Scorpion Flower j for they fuppofe a Refemblance of a Head, a Body, 
and four Legs : and they are fo indifferent Naturalifts, they never think of the 
Abfurdity of a four leg’d Scorpion. 
The Colour of the Flower is yellow in the Ground, and they are clouded 
and fpotted varioufly with a fine deep Crimfon. The Petals turn back at the 
Sides and Ends j otherwife the Body of the Flower would be much fuller, and 
would appear larger. They have the Fragrance of the animal Perfumes : the . 
Scent is fuch as an artful Perfon might produce from a Mixture of Mulk.and 
Civet, where neither was predominant, nor theWhole fo ftrong as to be offenfive. 
The Flower has no Cup : it is plac’d naked upon the Rudiment of the Fruit j 
which is long and lightly furrow’d. The Body of the Flower is compos’d of 
five diftin(ft and wide explanded Petals. In the Centre, where Filaments, and 
a Style might be expedled, is plac’d a fingular Body, a Nedfarium, form’d of 
four Pieces. Three of thefe are flat, the fourth, or uppermoft, is thick and hol- 
low j and thefe all unite at their Bafes in a tubular Body, which takes its Ori- 
gin from the very Head of the young Fruit. Within the hollow Part of the 
Nedlarium rifes the Style, and upon that are fix’d the Antherce. They are two, 
and they have very Ihort Filaments. The Fruit which follows, is a long flelhy 
Pod like the common Vanilla. 
The Charadfers of a Clafs, different from all thole we have before nam’d, ap- 
pear in this Flower : it is that of the Gynandria which have their Name from 
the peculiar Situation of the male Parts upon the Female , the Buttons growing 
upon the Style. 
’Tis fingular that the fine Scent of this Flower refides in the Nedlarium, and 
the Petal to which that principally adheres ; which is that fuppofed to reprefent 
the Body of the Scorpion. It is ftrongeft when the Flower juft opens, and grows 
weaker from that Time, but the Profufion of Bloom makes this lefs regarded 
on the Plant. 
G O L- 
Epidendrum caule adfcenedente tereti fubratnofo foliis lanceolatis petalis linearibus obtufis. Linn. 
The Scorpion Flower. 
