Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.21580
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    ‘Coryanthes speciosa var.’

    Date
    1842
    Creator
    Maxim Gauci (1774 - 1854, Italian) , Lithographer
    Paul Gauci (British) , Printer
    Creator - Organisation
    J Ridgway & Sons, Publisher
    After
    Sarah Anne Drake (1803 - 1857, British) , Illustrator
    Object type
    Library reference
    26846
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 580mm
    width (print): 430mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Botany
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Botanical illustration of Coryanthes speciosa or the bat orchid. Depicting a cluster of pseudo-bulbs sheathed in fibrous membrane and growing both horizontally and vertically form the centre. Two large leaves issue from the apex of the bulbs and two pendulous scapes emerges from the base bearing a handful of medium sized flowers. The unusual flowers comprise of large yellow and purple sepals which are folded back like bat wings. The petals are small and spotted with deep red markings and the lip is cup like in shape, orange and purple in colour with more spotted markings inside.

    Inscribed ‘Pl.36 , Miss Drake, delt. CORYANTHES SPECIOSA. .VAR. M. Gauci, lith. Pubd. by J Ridgway & Sons, 169 Piccadilly, July 1842. Printed by P. Gauci.’

    Plate 36 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.
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