Tab. 5504. 

 CATTLEYA quadricolor. 



Tour-coloured Cattleya. 



Nat. Old. ORCIIIDEiE. — Gynandrta Monaxdria. 

 Gen. Char. {Vide supra, Tab. 5-J49.) 



Cattleya quadricolor ; caulibns aiigustis compressis raonoplivllis, pedunculis 

 1-2-floris, sepalis oblotigo-lanceoiatis obtusis, petalis spathulatis 3-plo latio- 

 ribus, labello indiviso cuenllato hand dilatato, margine anteriore subt-ri^po. 

 Bateman, Gard. Citron. 1864,/?. 269. 



Cattleya quadricolor. Lindl. wss. 



Cattleya quadricolor. Batem. in Gard. Citron. I.e. 



This beautiful Cattleya was sent many years ago to Mr. 

 Rucker from New Granada, by one of his correspondents who 

 met with a solitary plant of it on the upper waters of the Rio 

 Magdalena. It soon flowered in Mr. Rucker's collection, and 

 the specimens then produced were forwarded to Dr. Lindley 

 who, being satisfied that it was a new species, gave it the appro- 

 priate name of C. quadricolor, in allusion to the four colours, 

 white, yellow, lilac, and purple, that are observable in its blos- 

 soms. The latter are produced in the winter months, and con- 

 tinue in perfection a long time, but they do not spread them- 

 selves out so freely as those of most other Cattleyas do. 



When I first examined the flowers of C. quadricolor I felt no 

 donbt that Dr. Lindley was right in regarding it as new ; and 

 even to the present time I have seen no Cattleya with such 

 closely imbricated white flowers, nor are its long upright nar- 

 row pseudobulbous stems to be matched among the extensive 

 importations that the Horticultural Society, the Messrs. Low, 

 and others have received from the country in which it was ori- 

 ginally found. Yet this very circumstance suggests a doubt as 

 to whether it may not ultimately prove to be what botanists call 

 a pcloria {i.e. a monster) of some other species, for if it wire 

 really an independent form, it seems scarcely credible that none 

 of the collectors now in New Granada should have met with it. 

 aphii. 1st, 1SG5. 



