P late XXXIV.
MILTONIA CLOWESII.
M. Clowesii; pseudobulbis ovalibus diphyllis, foliis ensiformibus angustis erectis
scapo longioribus, racemo paucifloro laxo, bracteis minimis setaceis, sepalis
petalisque lanceolatis sequalibus, labelli cordati in medio constricti apice sub-
rotundo acuto basi lamellis 5 inaequalibus abruptis quincuncialibus aucta.
Odontoglossum Clowesii. Botanical Register fo r 1839, miscellaneous matter, no. 153.
Among the dried specimens of plants collected by Mr. George Gardner in his early journeys
in Brazil was this plant, No. 669 of his herbarium, found upon the Organ mountains, in a deep ravine.
A supply sent home by that indefatigable naturalist afforded the specimen now represented, from a
drawing by Miss M. A. Mears, of a plant in the valuable collection of the Rev. John Clowes of
Broughton Hall, a most zealous and successful cultivator of these curious productions. It flowered
in September, 1839, under the care of Mr. Wm. Hammond, the gardener to Mr. Clowes, from
whom I have received the following memorandum concerning its habits.
“ The pseudo-bulbs are ovate, gradually tapering into a neck, glaucous and smooth, (the old
ones slightly furrowed), and are each terminated by a pair of coriaceous leaves, narrow and acuminate
at the point, slightly twisting, spreading, and longer than the raceme, which springs from the axils of
the primary leaves that surround the base of the pseudo-bulbs. The latter stand erect on a stout
rhizoma, about one inch in length, covered with a few yellowish brown imbricated scales.
“ The lip when first expanded is the most beautiful white, and afterwards changes as shewn in
the drawing.”
At Mr. Hammond’s wish it has been named after his master, than whom few persons can be
found having a stronger claim to such a little compliment.
When I first received it from Mr. Gardner I regarded it as an Odontoglossum, and at the time
Mr. Clowes’s specimen reached me I had not seen cause to change my opinion ; on which account I
referred it to that genus instead of Miltonia, of which Mr. Clowes had correctly considered it a
species. More recent information has however satisfied me that nothing must be admitted into
Odontoglossum unless with an unguiculate lip, and consequently the name under which it was first
published has to be altered.
Each raceme bears from four to seven flowers, as much as three inches from the tips of the petals
to that of the opposite sepals, seated on footstalks about an inch and a half long, and disposed in a
loose manner, something in the way of a corymb when the lower flowers are removed, but in a perfect
state in the usual equidistant manner. The sepals and petals are lanceolate, distinct, quite equal
and uniform both in colour and form, richly spotted with brown upon a yellow ground. The label-
ltjm is sessile, heart-shaped at the base, oblong, contracted in the middle, and a rich lilac up to the
point of contraction ; above this it expands into a roundish white rather acute, extremity, which
finally rolls up and becomes dull yellow; at the base of the labellum are five narrow elevated lines,
abruptly cut off at the end, of which the two lateral exterior are the shortest, the two intermediate
the longest, and that in the middle deeper than any, but intermediate in length. The column is
erect earless, abruptly terraced in front; with a tall obtuse cap-like anther, beyond which the small
brown gland just projects.