P late XXXI.
CATASETUM LONGIFOLIUM.
C. bngifolium; foliis longissimis gramineis, racemo cylindraceo pendulo multifloro,
sepalis ovatis subrotundis petalorum conformium dorso applicitis, labello urceo-
lari a tergo incurvo: limbo truncato apiculato intiis cereaceo glabro margine
fimbriato. Botanical Register fo r 1839, miscellaneous matter no. 154.
The genus Catasetum, including the suppressed and spurious genera Monachanthus and
Myanthus, but exclusive of Mormodes whose obliquely twisted column separates it from these, proves
to be one of which the species are numerous in tropical America, and in the adjacent countries;
almost every large importation producing some novelty belonging to the race. None however of
those yet discovered can be compared for beauty with the species now figured, of which a short
account has already been published in the Botanical Register.
It was imported from Demerara by Mr. Valentine Morris, of the Retreat, Battersea, to whom it
had been sent by his friend Mr. Henry Gloster, Attorney-General of the Colony, a great admirer and
cultivator of Orchidaceous plants. It has also been received by several other persons, but no one
except Mr. Morris has succeeded in causing it to produce its beautiful flowers. It blossomed at the
Retreat in October and November, 1839.
In its general habit it resembles the other species of its genus, but its leaves are a foot and half
or more in length, not more than three-quarters of an inch broad, three-ribbed, and so weak and
grassy, that they are unable to support themselves, and hang down if the plant is made to grow
upright; it will be presently seen, from Mr. Schomburgk’s observations, that when growing naturally
the pseudo-bulbs cling to the limbs of Palms, whence the leaves hang down gracefully. The racemes
are about a foot long, arising from the base of the pseudo-bulbs, whence they curve downwards and
become pendulous; they are so closely covered by from twenty to thirty flowers, which nearly touch
each other, that they have something of a cylindrical appearance. Each flower is seated upon a
stalk, which, taken together with the ovary, is an inch and half long, with a small ovate herbaceous
bract at its base. The sepals and petals are both shaped and coloured alike ; they are of a roundish
form, tapering to the point, where they are stained with purple, otherwise they are green ; the sepals
are twisted in such a manner as to be placed exactly at the back of the petals, and the whole together
are placed above the horizontal line of the flower. The labellum is very fleshy, somewhat cup-shaped,
or rather bag-shaped, and curved backwards at its end, firm, fleshy, about an inch in diameter at the
brim, of a deep rich orange running into crimson at the edge, a little rugged on the outside, very
smooth and waxy in the inside; in front it is abruptly terminated by a rich deep crimson warted
border, at the sides the edge thins away into a greenish violet fringe. The column is very short
slightly extended in front into two short horns, but quite destitute of cirrhi; at the back it terminates
in a rounded manner at the line of origin of the anther.
Mr. Schomburgk informs me that this plant was first discovered by him in 1836, and sent that
year to Messrs. Loddiges. “ We found it growing on the Ela-Palm (Mauritia flexuosa) where the
spadix generally developes itself; and in consequence of the height, and the little resemblance which
its long leaves bear to the general appearance of Orchidaceous plants, it had been no doubt overlooked.
“ The position in which it is represented in the plate is unnatural. The rapid decomposition of
vegetable matter under the tropics assists in collecting a little mould between the scars which have
been left where the fronds fell off. The place of lichens, the decomposition of which was the origin