MILTONIA CANDIDA.
M.Candida; pseudobulbis ovatis apice angustatis diphyllis, foliis angustis racemo
brevioribus, bracteis ovatis membranaceis concavis squamseformibus, sepalis
petalisque oblongis tequalibus, labello subrotundo crispo circa columnam convo-
luto basi 5-lamelIato, column^ pubescente basi biauri, clinandrio crispo membra-
naceo-marginato utrinque in alam decurrente.
Miltonia Candida. Bot. Register, 1838. misc. no. 29.
This Brazilian epiphyte is one of the most noble of its race, and is scarcely rivalled by any of
the beautiful species of Dendrobium pr Cattleya. When it first flowered, it was out of health, the
specimen was in an unnatural state, and consequently the brief character assigned to it in the
Botanical Register requires much modification.
It differs in the structure of its column and labellum in so many respects from the original
Miltonia, that if much experience had not taught me to judge more correctly of the value of such
differences among Yandeae, this would have been regarded as a new genus. In the first place, the
bed in which the anther lies is bordered by a fringed margin, which runs a little way down the front
of the column in the form of two flaps; in Miltonia spectabilis this is not the case, two auricles
only appearing on the front edge of the column; but in Oncidium cucullatum(,), a species related
to O. Lanceanum, and about the genus of which there can be no doubt, the anther-bed is in like
manner hooded by the thinning away of the margin. This tendency on the part of a body usually
so fleshy as the column, to become membranous, is met with in various degrees in many well known
genera, especially in Ccelogyne, Calypso, and Pachyphyllum, and is always to be regarded by the
systematist with some suspicion, with reference to its affording a valid mark of generic distinction,
unless it exists in excess, as in Centropetalum(,), a Peruvian genus, in which the column is not
only entirely petaloid, except at the line which bears the stigma and anthers, but coloured like the
lip, and completely convolute.
The cucullate character of the lip is another circumstance in which this species is obviously at
variance with the original Miltonia ; but the same difference is found between Cattleya bicolor and
other species of that genus.
The p s e u d o -b u l b s are ovate with a long neck, and are each terminated by a pair of coriaceous
l e a v e s , which are narrow, spreading, and shorter than the raceme, which springs from the axils of
the primary leaves, which surround the base of the pseudo-bulb. Each r a c e m e consists of five or six
flowers, which are separated from each other by intervals of from one and a half to two inches, and
(1.) Oncidium cucullatum; pseudobulbis foliisque................ scapo paniculate angulato bracteis squamiformibus cartilagineis concavis
acutis, sepalo supremo oblopgo inferioribus omninb connatis petalisque ovalibus carnosis planis, labello cordato panduriformi
apice maximo lunato transverso appendice lanceolate apiculato, tuberculo baseos ovate subtridenteto, eolumna nana basi auriculis
rotundatis marginal, clinandrio cucullato.------In arboribus ascensus occidentedis montis Pichinchce, Jameson.
(2.) Cbntropetalum. Sepala et petala libera labello dupld minora. Labellum obovatum, indivisum, nudum, basi appendice parva
excavata auctum. Columna petaloidea, convolute, basi ima labello adnata. Anthera membranacca, unilocularis. Pollinia 4,
distineta, geminatim caudiculis 2 longis ascendentibus affixa.------C. distichum. Folia disticha, carnosa, linearia, falcate. Pedunculi
solitarii, terminales. Flores lutei j-poll. lati. Columna denticulate. Labellum integerrimum.----- Peruvia, prov. Chacha