Cycnoches egertonianum Maxim Gauci after Sarah Anne Drake

Botanical illustration of Cycnoches egertonianum or Sir Philip Egerton's Cycnoches orchid. Showing two conical pseudobulbs rooted to a mossy branch. One blub is shown with long ridged leaves issuing long its length while the other is smooth and no longer active. Two scapes emerge from between the leaves, one upright and bearing large yellow flowers and the other long and pendulous bearing several small deep purple flowers along its length with closed buds at the end. A detail of the lip and column of the smaller flowers are shown in the lower right-hand corner. The two-flower form is described in the text as a strange phenomenon, possibly the male and female blossoms of other tribes of flower.

Inscribed 'Pl.40, Miss Drake, delt. CYCNOCHES EGERTONIANUM. M. Gauci, lith. Pubd. by J Ridgway & Sons, 169 Piccadilly, July 1842. Printed by P. Gauci.'

Plate 40 from The Orchidaceae of Mexico & Guatemala by James Bateman (London, 1843).

James Bateman (1811-1897), British horticulturalist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1838.