Count Karwinski, with a labellum at least three inches and a half long. The same plant was found
in flower in the month of July, on shady rocks near the Hacienda de la Laguna by Schiede, who
reports the flower to be rose-coloured.
It is much to be regretted that all these magnificent plants should not yet have reached us alive;
still more is it to be lamented that there is no probability of the Peruvian species ever arriving here,
unless some zealous patron of gardening will send a collector for the express purpose of procuring
them, and other precious gems of the Western Andes. They are found more especially on the rocky
and shrubby summit of the ridge of Cassapillo; S. rosea is probably the finest of them, with its
large flowers (four inches in diameter) of a beautiful pink ; but S. dichotoma seems the favourite of
the Peruvians themselves. Of the latter Poppig speaks as follows : This perennial plant is found
only on the more sterile mountain-tops, where the limestone rocks, flung over the ground in mighty
ruins, are either assembled in heaps, or are separated by huge fissures, or sometimes are suspended
as it were over the brink of some dreadful precipice. They there bring forth a treacherous sward of
mosses and ferns, which is overrun by that dwarf, prostrate, impenetrable thicket, rich in beautiful
but spiny rigid branching shrubs, which can only be penetrated by the traveller with great toil and
danger; and which, as it constitutes the highest limits of arborescent vegetation, the Peruvian calls
the eyelash of the forest (la ceja de la montana). In such places the Sobralia dichotoma appears,
loaded with violet blossoms, and scattering around a delicious fragrance like that of the Ten-weeks
Stock. Because of its surpassing but transitory beauty the people of the country regard it as a
vegetable wonder, and name it the Flower of Paradise (flor del paraiso).
I am happy to add that through the exertions of Mr. Schomburgk, Messrs. Loddiges have at
length added the white variety of this interesting plant to our collections.*
* When this genus was published in the Flora Peruviana an entirely false account was given of the nature of the pollen-masses,
Which were represented as being those of the Vandeous section of Orchidaceas; and at the publication of the third part of the Genera
and Species of Orchidacea, no opportunity had ever occurred to me of examining into this point of structure. Subsequently
Mr. Poppig pointed out the error, and shewed that the pollen of the genus is pulverulent.
Mr. Schomburgk, not being aware of these facts, and unable to reconcile the plant discovered by him with the supposed character
of Sobralia, naturally regarded it as a new genus, and proposed to dedicate it to Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of Prussia;
with a view to which intention drawings were sent to Baron Humboldt for publication. In the meanwhile the beauty of copies of those
drawings, sent by our distinguished traveller to Messrs. Loddiges, having attracted my attention, I begged to have them for the present
work; and it was not till the eve of their publication here that I became aware that Mr. Schombuigk had wished that they shonldbe first
made known to the world in Germany. Since however neither the genus nor species is new, as had been supposed, it will be necessary
to select some other plant to bear the name of Her Royal Highness; and from among his many new and most interesting discoveries,
Mr. Schomburgk will have no difficulty , in selecting some other equally worthy of such a dedication