transfer them to the stoves of his native land. In pursuit of this object, there is scarcely a sacrifice which he has not 
made, or a danger or hardship which he has not braved. In sickness or in health, amid the calls of business or the 
perils of war, whether detained in quarantine on the shores of the Atlantic,* or shipwrecked on the rocks of the 
Pacific, he has never suffered an opportunity to escape him of adding to the long array of his botanical discoveries ! 
And, assuredly, he has not laboured in vain, for he may truly be said to have been the means of introducing a greater 
number of new and beautiful Orchidacee into Europe, than any one individual of his own or any other nation. As 
the channel through which his discoveries have found their way into his mother country, it would ill become us, in this 
place, to enlarge upon the generous, kind, and spirited manner in which he has uniformly acted towards us; we must, 
therefore, without further preface, request his acceptance of the only acknowledgments which it is in the power of the 
science he has so much befriended to bestow. Unfortunately, there is already a Peruvian gens called (but not after 
our friend) Skinneria; we can, therefore, do no more than select some species which may not do discredit to his name, 
and we confess we are unable to conceive one better fitted for our purpose than the magnificent Cattleya represented 
in the accompanying Plate. 
The colour of Cattleya-Skimeri (for we must henceforth call it by its title) is that of the most brilliant and intense 
rose, and there is a delicacy about it which is not surpassed by any plant with which we are acquainted. It is easily 
grown, and produces its flowers freely in the month of March; but, when they first expand, they are of a very pale hue, 
and not more than half the size to which they attain in the course of a day or two. We mention this circumstance, 
which, though rare, is by no means peculiar to the species, to prevent others feeling as much disappointed as we did 
ourselves, at the appearance of its blossoms while m a state of immaturity. Some of the imported specimens have 
borne upwards of twelve flowers, that we think it probable that this number may eventually be exceeded in cultivation. 
The present species is readily distinguished from all the Cattleyas as yet known, by the extreme shortness of its 
column, which is not more than one quarter the length of the lip. 
Mr. Skiyner found this plant almost exclusively in the warmer parts of Guatemala, and along the shores of the 
Pacific. Its familiar appellation is “Flor de San Sebastian,” and like Mr. Skinner’s other namesake (the beauteous 
Epidendrum Skinner), it is eagerly sought for, when in season, by the people of the country, as an ornament for the 
temples and shrines of their favourite saints. 
The Vignette is copied from a drawing, obligingly procured for us by Mr. M° Krier (Me. Sxrvner’s partner), and 
furnishes a view of the Altar of a Church in Guatemala, which arrested Mr. Sxrnner’s attention by the beauty of the 
Orchidacez with which it was adorned.+ 
“Tte igitur pueri, linguis, animisque faventes, 
Sertaque delubris, et farra imponite cultris, 
* * * * * * 
- * graciles ubi parva coronas 
Accipiunt fragili simulacra nitentia cera.” 
Juvenat, Saé. xii. 83. 
* Mr. Skinner was detained in quarantine at the Castle of St. Philip, in the Bay of Dulcé, for more than a fortnight, on his return from England 
in 1837; to his detention there we owe some valuable plants: and, to his subsequent shipwreck on the coast of the Pacific, we owe many more. When 
thrown (after the loss of his good ship the “Spartan,”) upon an inhospitable shore, his first care was not, as some might have supposed, to ascertain 
whether the strange spot produced any food, but whether it produced any plants ! 
+ In the wood-cut the Orchidacev are represented with their pseudo-bulbs attached, but it is much more usual to see the flower-spikes only. 
