P late IX.
CALANTHE BREVICORNU.
Calanthe brevicornu. Genera fy Species o f Orchid, plants, p. 251.
As yet we know little in the Gardens of the beauty of this extensive Indian genus, for neither
of the two species we possess is calculated to convey an idea of the striking appearance of some
of the kinds. C. purpurea and Masuca have flowers of the most delicate lilac, in C. emarginata
and sylvatica they are large and purple, in G. speciosa orange-coloured, and in the species now
represented stained and neatly striped with brownish red.
C. brevicornu is a native of Nepal, where it was found by Dr. Wallich in the year 1821. From
a drawing executed under the direction of that celebrated Botanist, the accompanying figure has
been prepared by permission of the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company.
It varies in height from nine inches to one foot and a half, and produces broad, deep green,
smooth, plaited leaves, which gradually taper off into a sheathing foliaceous stalk, surrounded
externally by several sheathing scales. The scape is about the same height as the leaves, smooth,
round, and with a few distant scales. The flowers are racemose and generally arranged on one
side of the scape, and are subtended by ovate-lanceolate, slightly downy bracts, rather longer than
the pedicels- The ovary is taper, clavate, and downy. The sepals and petals are linear-lanceolate,
spreading, nearly equal, striped with bright light red. The labellum, which is three-lobed, is not
very much united with the column, and has a very short smooth spur; its lateral lobes are acute,
and much smaller than the middle one, which is obovate, and emarginate, with two deep vertical
plates, running down the middle towards the spur, and concealing a third, which is smaller, but rather
longer ; its colour is white, with a few reddish spots at the base. The fruit is an oblong triangular
capsule, opening at the angles into three valves.
Up to the present time we can scarcely be said to possess more than two Calanthes in the
gardens of this country; one the stately snow-white C. veratrifolia, and the other C. densiflora. Two
others well worth obtaining have been imported into Flanders and Holland; with flowers and sketches
of which I was three years ago favoured by M. Auguste Mechelynck, a distinguished collector of
rare plants at Ghent. I presume they are natives of Java, where many species exist, but they have
not been noticed by Dr. Blume. One of these called Ambiglottis flava, but not the species so named by
the learned Botanist just mentioned, has large yellow flowers copper-coloured on the outside, on
which account it may be called Calanthe bicolor. The other resembles C. brevicornu in the size of
its flowers audits manner of growth, but has a snow-white labellum, and deep chocolate brown sepals
and petals; the Belgian gardeners call it C. tricolor, but as it does not appear how the name applies
I take the liberty of changing it to that of C. discolor.
The following technical characters will enable botanists to recognise these two species.
C. bicolor; racemo laxo pubescente, sepalis petalisque acutis, labelli trilobi column® omnino
accreti lobis subsequalibus : intermedio cuneato apiculato trilamellato basi convexo pubescente bicorni,
calcare acuto limbo duplb breviore glabro.
C. discolor; racemo laxo pubescente, sepalis petalisque acutis, labelli trilobi column® omnind
accreti basi pubescentis bilamellati lobo intermedio bilobo 3-carinato, calcare pubescente acuto
limbo breviore.