EEIA BRACTESCENS.— LONG-BRACTED ERIA. 
Class XX. GYNANDRIA. Order I. MONANDRIA. 
Natural Order, ORCH IDEAS. — THE ORCHIS TRIBE. 
Among the extensive genus Erias, we find a few species particularly distinguished by their short fleshy 
stems, and the membranous coloured bracts which accompany their hairless flowers. Of these the best 
known are the present species, longilabris, obesa, and a Philippine plant that may be called ovata. They 
are natives of the hotter parts of India, and are so much alike that an incautious observer might almost 
regard them as varieties. They are, however, most truly distinct, as the following definitions of them will 
shew. 
1. Er bractescens. 
Mr. Cuming found this at Sincapore, and Mr. Griffith in Burma, near Moulmain. It has a fleshy ob- 
long stem, which bears at the summit two or three leaves, from one and a half to two inches broad, and 
gradually tapering to the base. Its flowers are in the Sincapore plant greenish white, with a ‘lip crimson 
except at the end; in the Burma plant they are more straw colour than green. The lip is three-lobed, has 
an abruptly truncated extremity, and is marked with three elevated ridges, of which the two side ones are 
very short, while the middle one reaches to the end of the lip. Fig. 1. shews this structure, and fig. 2. the 
pollen-masses. 
2. E. longilabris (Lindl. in Bot. Reg. 1841. misc. 69.) 
This is a native of Panay in the Philippines, whence it was sent to Messrs. Loddiges by Mr. Cuming. 
It is very like Eria bractescens, hut is a much finer species, and bears more flowers. It is distinguished at 
once by its lip, which is not truncate, and has three equal wavy ridges prolonged almost as far as the tip of 
the middle lobe, which is long and acuminated. 
3. E. obesa. (Lindl. in Wall. Cat. no. 1976. Gen. and Sp. no. 15.) 
This was originally taken up from imperfect Martaban specimens in Dr. Wallich’s herbarium. It was 
afterwards met with at Moulmain and Merquy by Mr. Griffith; always, however, without leaves. The 
pseudo-bulbous stems are about twenty-seven inches long; the bracts ovate, reflexed, greenish dull purple ; 
the flowers white with a tinge of pink, and a yellow lip ; they are arranged in short spreading racemes. 
4. E. ovata. 
This plant, found in the Philippines by Mr. Cuming, evidently differs from the three others in the 
shape of the lip, which has no lobes, but an ovate-oblong form and a couple of little diverging plates near 
the base. It is nearest to E. longilabris in general appearance. 
All these should be potted in turfy heath-mould, mixed with a few pieces of potsherds. Water should 
be- liberally given during the growing season, and the atmosphere kept as humid as possible. In sunny 
weather the house should be slightly shaded, for although this plant succeeds well in a high temperature, it 
is soon injured by the rays of the sun. In winter very little water is required, and where steam cannot be 
admitted a slight syringe over head will be sufficient for two or three months. 
“ This is the month,” says a popular writer, “ in which we are said by the Frenchman to hang and 
drown ourselves. We also agree with him to call it £ the gloomy month of November f and, above all, with 
our in-door, money-getting, and unimaginative habits, all the rest of the year, we contrive to make it so. 
Not all of us, however: and fewer and fewer, we trust, every day. It is a fact well known to the medical 
philosopher, that, in proportion as people do not like air and exercise, their blood becomes darker and 
darker : now what corrupts and thickens the circulation, and keeps the humours within the pores, darkens 
and clogs the mind ; and we are then in a state to receive pleasure but indifferently or confusedly, and pain 
with tenfold painfulness. If we add to this a quantity of unnecessary cares and sordid mistakes, it is so 
much the worse. A love of nature is the refuge. He who grapples with March, and has the smiling eyes 
upon him of June and August, need have no fear of November. — And as the Italian proverb says, every 
medal has its reverse. November, with its loss of verdure, its frequent rains, the fall of the leaf, and the 
visible approach of winter, is undoubtedly a gloomy month to the gloomy, but to others, it brings but pen- 
siveness, a feeling very far from destitute of pleasure ; and if the healthiest and most imaginative of us may 
feel their spirits pulled down by reflections connected with earth, its mortalities, and its mistakes, we should 
