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Coryanthes (From korys a helmet and anthos)

(from korys, a helmet, and anthos, a flower; in reference to the shape of the lip). Helmet-flower. ORD. Orchideoe. Very extraordinary and ornamental stove epiphytal Orchids. The most remarkable species is C. macrantha, and some account of it may be gleaned from the following description, which appeared in the "Botanical Register," over forty years ago: "The plant has the habit of a Stanhopea, and pushes forth from the base of its pseudo-bulbs a pendulous scape, on which two or three flowers are developed; each flower is placed at the end of a long, stiff, cylindrical-furrowed ovary, and, when expanded, measures something more than 6in. from the tip of one sepal to that of the opposite one. The sepals and petals are nearly of the same colour, being of an ochrey-yellow, spotted irregularly with dull purple. The lip is as fleshy and solid in texture as the sepals and petals are delicate; it is seated on a dark purple stalk, nearly 1in. long. This stalk terminates in a hemispherical greenish-purple cup or cap, and the latter, contracting at its front edge, extends forward into a sort of second stalk of a very vivid blood-colour, the sides of which are thinner than the centre, turned back, and marked with four or five very deep, solid, sharp-edged plaits These edges again expand and form a second cup, less lobed than the first, thinning away very much to the edges, of a broad conical figure, with a diameter of at least 2in. at the orifice; this second cup is of an ochrey-yellow, streaked and spotted with pale crimson, and seems intended to catch a watery secretion, which drips into it from two succulent horns, taking their origin in the base of the column, and hanging over the centre of the cup." For culture, see Stanhopea.

C. macrantha (large-flowered).* fl. lasting but three or four days in bloom. May, June, and July. Caraccas. (B. R. 22, 1841.) See also description given above.

C. maculata (spotted). fl. pale ochraceous-yellow, spotted with purple, lasting but three days in beauty. Summer. Demerara, 1829. (B. M. 3102.) C. speciosa (showy). fl. pale yellow, ephemeral in consistency. April. Brazil, 1826. SYN. Gongora speciosa. (B. M. 2755.)