PSEUDOBULBS _about 3 or 4 inches long, somewhat compressed, ovale,
2-leaved_. LEAVES _sword-shaped, sharp-pointed, a foot or more long,
about the same length as the many-flowered nodding_ RACEMES. BRACTS
_ovate, acute, scaly_. PEDICELS _equalling in length the average spaces
between the_ FLOWERS. SEPALS _and_ PETALS _nearly equal,
oblong-lanceolate (the petals sometimes unguiculate), acuminate, of a
rich chocolate-brown inside, with edges and tips of a greenish-yellow_.
LIP _with a very short claw, fiddle-shaped, at its side-edges plane, its
centre-lobe minutely serrate and apiculate, with a multitude of
finger-like processes (varying in different individuals) seated on the
claw, and with their bristles all more or less inclining forwards. The
upper portion of the lip is white, with a brown base, which again is
banded with white beneath the series of bristles, which are of a rich
golden-yellow_. COLUMN _only one-third the length of the petals, slightly
arched, with lacerated, hairy wings nearly concealing the anther_.
The vicissitudes which the name of this species has had to undergo within
the last three years are full of instruction both to botanists and the
public. It was first described by Lindley from wild specimens gathered by
Linden in the neighbourhood of Quindiu. Mr. Weir was the next to meet with
it, and he succeeded in sending to the Horticultural Society several living
plants that had been obtained about 100 miles to the south of Bogotá. He
also sent wild specimens in admirable condition which, not agreeing with
Lindley's description, and being profusely furnished both at the base of
the lip and in the apex of the column with long bristle-like appendages,
led to my calling it _O. hystrix_ (_i. e._ the Porcupine Odontoglossum).
Messrs. Low also received the plant, through their collector Mr. Blunt,
from the same locality as that where Weir met with it, and one of their
plants produced flowers which--neither agreeing with Lindley's _O.
luteo-purpureum_ nor with my _O. hystrix_--received from Professor
Reichenbach the name of _O. radiatum_. Subsequently many specimens
flowered, no two of which were alike, though they all maintained a sort of
distant family resemblance to _O. luteo-purpureum_ of which--as the
Professor himself was the first to point out--there can now be no doubt
that they are all varieties.
The figure is taken from a plant that flowered in Mr. Day's collection in
the autumn of 1865, the flowers of which were twice the size of those of a
plant that flowered with me,--but still larger varieties have since
appeared in the collections of Lord Egerton of Tatton and Mr. Wentworth
Buller.
The species, being found at an elevation of 8000 feet or more, requires
very "cool" treatment, and should be referred to what--for reasons stated
under Plate XX.--I propose to call the "Peruvian house." In this it is very
easily grown, and flowers freely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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