P late XVI.
CYCNOCHES CHLOROCHILON.
C. chlorochilon ; racemo subtrifloro suberecto, sepalis ovalibus, petalis paulo majoribus
falcatis, labello subsessili obovato acuto convexo basi concavo: callo elevato
transverso obtuso triangulari.
C. chlorochilon, Klotzsch in Otto u. Dietrichs Allgemeine Gartenzeitung July 21,
1838. p . 225.
This noble species of Cycnoches has been introduced from Demerara by Messrs. Loddiges,
in whose collection the annexed figure was taken ; it was also sent to Berlin in 1836 from
Maracaybo by Mr. Moritz, a naturalist in that country, from the produce of whose plants Dr.
Klotzsch obtained the flowering specimen described in the work above quoted; and I have seen
a flower of it in the possession of the Messrs. Rollissons of Tooting, who received it from Mr. John
Youell, Nurseryman, Great Yarmouth. In every case of its blossoming three flowers were obtained,
so that such may be supposed to be the number usually borne by each raceme.
In many respects it resembles the Cycnoches ventricosum figured in Mr. Bateman’s princely
work on the Orchidace® of Mexico and Guatemala, but it differs in the flowers being much larger,
the raceme shorter and less graceful, the sepals and petals broader and not so acute, and especially
in the form of the lip, which is nearly sessile, obovate and acute, not ovate and acuminate, green
not white, with the broad green callosity at the base far larger and differently formed.
In the stem and leaves this plant does not sufficiently differ from the, two other species of the
genus to require a particular description. The raceme springs from the upper part of the stem,
from among some dry, furrowed, acute, close-pressed scales, and usually bears three flowers, of a
uniform yellowish green colour, nearly six inches in diameter, and by their weight bearing down
the peduncle in a slight degree, so as to acquire a nodding, not a pendulous, position. Of the
SEPALS the lateral ones are oblong, narrowed to the point, but not acuminate, a little longer than
the labellum, at the back of which they are placed almost parallel with each other; the intermediate
one is narrower, obtuse, a little spreading away from the column, whose curve it follows, except
near the end, where it is somewhat recurved. The petals are broader than the lateral sepals, but of
the same form, except that they are slightly falcate, with their concave edge next the lip, towards
which they are turned, so that the flower has its parts expanded in two opposite directions : the
lateral sepals, petals, and lip upwards, and the intermediate sepal downwards; The lip stands
erect at the back of the flower, is about two inches and a half long, and an inch and a quarter wide
in the broadest part; in texture it is firm and fleshy ; in colour it is deep green at the base, and
a yellowish green every where else ; in form it is widest and very convex a little above the middle,
from which it is regularly ovate as far as the point: below the middle it narrows, and becomes
concave with thick, round, elevated, recurved edges, and at the base it is contracted into a very short
thick fleshy unguis ; above the unguis, and across it, is seated a thick, green, somewhat triangular
but rounded callosity, scarcely a quarter of an inch deep. The column is about an inch and three-
quarters long, very slender, green, wide at the base, tapering through the greater part of its length,
and flattened out at the apex, where it terminates in three narrow fleshy teeth curved over the back
of the anther, the middle one being the narrowest; it bends away from the lip so gracefully, that
the two taken together almost describe the segment of a circle.
The flowers are from five to eight inches in diameter, and are deliciously fragrant.