Elleanthus
(from eilo, I shut in, and anthos, a flower; in reference to the flower being closed by bracts). SYN. Evelyna. ORD. Orchideoe. A genus of pretty stove terrestrial orchids. About fifty species have been described, but few have been in cultivation. All are natives of tropical America. They are of easy culture in an ordinary orchid house, requiring a compost of loam and peat.
E. Caravata (Caravata). fl. bright yellow, with a short, purplish, inferior, twisted ovary; spike elongato-capitate, very compact, formed of numerous erecto-patent, purple, lanceolate-acuminate, imbricated, striated bracts, longer than the flowers; calyx of three ovato-lanceolate, suddenly acute, nearly erect sepals; petals shorter than the lip, as are the oblong, obtuse, nearly erect petals; lip large, erect, three-lobed. November. l. distant, on long, sheathing bases, lanceolate, rigid, very long, and gradually and finely acuminate. Stem about 1ft. high, erect, slender, terete, hispid, as is all the foliage, and, more or less, the bracts and sepals. Guiana, 1858. SYN. Evelyna Caravata (under which name it is figured in B. M. 5141). E. kermesina (carmine). fl. bright carmine. January. h. 6in. Mariquita, 1843. E. xanthocomus (yellow-haired). fl. yellow, in erect racemes. May. l. lanceolate, acuminate, vaginate. h. 1ft. Peru, 1872. Erect. (B. M. 6016.)