quite at home, potted either in peat or sandy loam, or even suspended in the stove with no other aids or 
appliances than what may be obtained through the medium of the dense masses of fleshy roots, with which, 
on their importation, they are often found to be well provided.* The specimen from which the plate is 
taken was hung up in this manner for nearly two years, and not a particle of moss, soil, or covering of 
any kind was permitted to touch the roots throughout the whole of the time, and yet there was no lack of 
either shoots or flowers. Subsequent experiments, however, go to prove that although Sobralias may be 
readily cultivated in various ways, yet under no circumstance do they succeed so perfectly as when grown 
in a house of moderate temperature, and potted in sandy loam,—conditions that might naturally be expected 
to suit a race of plants that are almost confined to the defiles of the Andes and Cordilleras. 
S. decora is a native of Guatemala, from whence it was originally sent to Knypersley by Mr. SkINNER. 
It blooms in the autumn for weeks together, throwing up a succession of blossoms, each of which lasts only 
a single day :—a peculiarity that unfortunately characterizes all the species of the genus. In the form of 
the flower, S. decora approaches a Brazilian species (S. sessilis) that has recently been figured in the 
“Botanical Register,” but the colours are different, as are also the habit and aspect of the two plants ; 
S. decora being of slender growth, with its leaves and stems of a greenish hue and nearly smooth, while 
S. sessilis has a stout and robust character, and is so thickly covered with dark hairs as to have quite a 
purplish cast. 
The beautiful drawing from which the plate is engraved was most kindly made by Miss Epwarps, 
who has been highly successful in her portraiture of the plant. 
The Vignette represents a woman of Guatemala attired in one of the most becoming of the many 
costumes of that country. 
“Tf I had such a tire, this face of mine 
Were full as lovely as is this of her’s.” 
SHAKSPEARE. 
* If no plants of Sobralia were ever packed with a view to a passage across the seas, except such as have the large masses of roots described 
above, or in any other than the dry season, we should not have so continually to deplore their death on the voyage. 
