Early in the present century, two Spaniards--La Llave and Lexarza by name--settled at the Mexican town of Valladolid, in the fertile province of Mechoacan. They were both attached to botany, but the younger of the two, Lexarza, was so attracted by the beauty of the numerous Orchids of the district that to these he devoted himself with an ardour that would have done honour even to the Lindleys and Reichenbachs of our own day. As the result of his labours a little work--'Orchidianum Opusculum' he modestly styled it--presently made its appearance, wherein about fifty species, all at that time new to science, were described with remarkable accuracy and skill. Among the number there was a plant,--_Cuitlauzina pendula_ he called it,--said to be of surpassing loveliness and to form an undoubtedly new genus the distinctive characters of which were minutely given. As time went on and the rage for Orchids developed itself in Europe, a keen desire was naturally felt by cultivators to add so fine a plant to their lists; but although many collectors visited Valladolid and laid hands upon nearly all the other desirable Orchids described by Lexarza, still nothing was heard of the _Cuitlauzina_, and on the cover of the latest number of Dr. Lindley's 'Folia Orchidacea' its name may be found in the list of genera "unknown to the author." About the same time I myself addressed a letter to the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' urging some adventurous traveller to take ship for New Spain, mainly with the object of instituting another search for the tantalizing plant that had hitherto eluded our grasp. Yet all this while _Cuitlauzina pendula_ was amongst us, and indeed had been an established favourite for upwards of twenty years! But if so, it may well be asked, how came it to pass that it was never recognized? For a full reply to this very natural inquiry I must refer the reader to a most ingenious article in 'Bonplandia' (Jahrg. iii. No. 15, 16), by the younger Reichenbach, to whom all the credit is due of having solved a great botanical puzzle, and proved to demonstration that the _Cuitlauzina pendula_ of Lexarza is none other than the _Odontoglossum citrosmum_ of Lindley.[4] Under these circumstances, however undesirable the meddling with established names, I scarcely see how, in common justice to Lexarza, we can do otherwise than adopt his specific name of _pendula_, more especially as it happens that the plant to which he originally gave it remains to this day the only one out of nearly a hundred _Odontoglossa_ that has flower-stems which are strictly _pendulous_. Our gardens contain many varieties of _O. pendulum_, of which, though all are beautiful, some are far superior to others. That represented in the Plate, and which forms a part of Mr. Rucker's collection, is among the best. Mr. Rucker keeps it in his coolest house, where it is perfectly at home, and produces a profusion of its lovely drooping racemes in May and June. It should always be grown in a pot.