GALEANDRA DEVONIAN A. -DUKE OE DEVONSHIRE’S GAUEANDRA. 
Class XX. GYNANDRIA. — Order I. MONANDRIA. 
Natural Order, ORCHIDEJE. THE ORCHIS TRIBE. 
Character of the Genus, Galeandra. Perianth spreading, sepals and petals nearly equal, ascending. 
Lip undivided or obscurely three-lobed, spurred, internally enlarged by four plates or lamellae. Column 
erect, membranaceously winged, clinandrium directed downwards. Pollen-masses two, hollowed out behind, 
the caudicula short, and adhering to the short diverging two-lobed gland. 
Description of the Species, Galeandra Devoniana. Stem erect, simple, round, many-leaved, 
leaves embracing the stem, lanceolate, three-nerved. Inflorescence a racemose peduncle, sessile, erect, 
many-flowered. Perianth of five spreading folioles, nearly equal, of a yellowish green, except the lip, which 
is of a whitish or cream colour, marked by pinkish, longitudinal, and irregularly transverse lines. Lip pro- 
longed into a spur of a green colour; the lamina ovate, obtuse, crenulate, marked, at the hinder part, with 
four elevated plates. Anthers furnished with a fleshy rounded pubescent crest. 
Popular and Geographical Notice. The following is an account of this plant, by Mr. Schom- 
burg, its discoverer, extracted from his letter, in Dr. Lindley’s elegant Sertum Orchidaceum: “During our 
peregrinations we have seen this plant no where else hut at the banks of the Rio Negro, a tributary of the 
Amazon; where, in the neighbourhood of Barcellos, or Mariua, we found it growing in large clusters on the 
trees which lined the river, sometimes on the Mauritia aculeata, or even on the ground, where the soil con- 
sisted of vegetable mould. It was so luxuriant that some of the large clusters of stems, which sprouted 
from a common root, might have been from ten to twelve feet in circumference. 55 The profusion of orchi- 
daceous plants in tropical America may be judged of by the following statement of Dr. Walsh: “The 
destruction of a tree in these woods does not lessen the abundance of vegetable life. On every stem which 
had lost its own bark and leaves, a crop of parasites had succeeded, and covered the naked wood with their 
no less luxuriant leaves and flowers. Of these the different species of air-plants, and Tillandsias were the 
most remarkable. The first were no less singular than beautiful; they attach themselves to the driest and 
most sapless surface, and bloom as if springing from the richest soils. A specimen of one of these, which 
I thought curious, I threw into my portmanteau, where it was forgotten; and some months after, in unfolding 
some linen, I was astonished to find a rich scarlet flower in full blow; it had not only lived, but vegetated 
and blossomed, though so long excluded from air, light, and humidity. Every withered tree here was 
covered with them, bearing flowers of all hues, from the brightest yellow to the deepest scarlet. 55 Notices 
of Brazil, II, p. 306. 
Introduction; Where Grown; Culture. Sent, by Mr. Schomhurg, to the ever-augmenting 
stores of the Messrs. Loddiges, at Hackney. It grows in a pot, in the stove. Much attention must be 
given to ensure free drainage. 
Derivation of the Names. Galeandra, a word most inelegantly compounded of Galea, a 
helmet, and *vyp a stamen, from the helmet-shaped crest of the anther. Devoniana, a justly merited 
compliment to the Duke of Devonshire, President of the Horticultural Society. 
