ODONTOGLOSSUM LUTEO-PURPUREUM.
Y E L L O W A N D B R O W N O D O N T O G L O S S U M.
O. (EUODONTOGLOSSUM) pseudobulbis ovatis subcompressis dipbyllis, foliis ensiformibus racemis
multifloris nutantibus subfequalibus, bracteis ovatis aeutis squamasformibus, pedieellis
internodiis asquantibus, sepalis petalisquc subsequalibus oblongo-lanceolatis acuminatis,
labelli breviter unguiculati lateribus planis, limbo subpanduriformi antice lacero-serrulato,
crista ad basin multidigitata, columnse petalis triplo brevioris vix arcuatee idis multifidis
crinitis.
ODONTOGLOSSUM LUTEO-PUBPUBEUM, Lindl. Orch. Linden, n. 85; Fol. Orch. n. 7.
ODONTOGLOSSUM KAD1ATUM, Bchb. Gard. Chron. (18G4, New Plants, n. 307.)
ODONTOGLOSSOM HYSTRIX, Batsman in Gard. Chron. 1864, New Plants, n. 282.
Habitat in N. GRANADA, prope Quindiu, alt. 8000 p., Linden; prope Santa Fc de Bogota, Weir, Blunt.
DESCRIPTION.
PSEUDOBCLBS 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, oblonglanceolate
(the petals sometimes unguiculatej, acuminate, of a rich chocolate-brown inside, with edges and tips of a
greenish-yellow. LIP with a very short claw,Jiddle-shaped, at its side-edges plane. Us 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 specics 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 Bogota. 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. Bhint, 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. luteopurptireum
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 tl.e 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
collodions of Lord Eaerton of Tatton and Mr. Wentworth Buller.