16 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



tlie compost open. It requires an abundant supply of moisture when 

 growing. 



L. anceps Daicsoniana. — This is a lovely variety of the last species, 

 from which it differs chiefly in having creamy-white sepals and petals, 

 and a rich bright purple blotch on the apex of its white labellum. It 

 is rare in collections, but one of the most strikingly beautiful of all 

 Orchids. 



L. Perrin'ti — This plant resembles the Cattleyas in habit, and has 

 purplish, club-shaped, pseudo-bulbs, slightly compressed and distinctly 

 furrowed. Its rosy-purple flowers are borne four or five on a spike 

 about 8 or 10 inches long. The lip is three-lobed, and has a rich vel- 

 vety crimson apex. It generally flowers during November or December, 

 and lasts a considerable time in beauty. It grows remarkably well in 

 an ordinary plant-stove having a mean winter temperature of 50° ; 

 and well-established specimens produce a rich profusion of flowers. 



L. siLperhiens. — This is an old plant introduced from Guatemala 

 some time about 1840. It has long, thick, spindle-shaped bulbs, each 

 bearing a couple of stout leathery leaves about 1 foot long. It throws 

 up its great flower-spikes about October, but it takes them a long time 

 to develop themselves, and their flowers expand in December or Janu- 

 ary. The flower-spikes frequently attain a length of from 5 to 10 feet, 

 and bear at their apices ten to twenty flowers. The most striking col- 

 our of the flowers is bright purplish-rose, but there is also a combina- 

 tion of white, crimson, lilac, and yellow intermixed, the tout ensemhle 

 being very fine. This plant does well in lumps of fibrous peat and 

 nodules of charcoal and crocks, and it does not require a high tem- 

 perature in which to grow it successfully. A fine specimen of this 

 plant once existed, for a considerable time, in the old Orchid-house 

 at Chiswick, merely suspended from the roof, without any compost 

 whatever. 



We cannot well include L. ma j alls in our list of winter-flowering 

 species, for though it grows well on a block in the temperature recom- 

 mended for L. autumnalis, still its flowers are not produced until it 

 commences its growth about April or ^May. It is the May-flower 

 of the Spanish Americans (Flor de Mais), and is one of the most 

 striking species in cultivation, though likely to be rivalled by the 

 newly-introduced L. Jonghenna. With these few remarks, we leave 

 the winter-blooming Lrelias to the attention of our readers, and shall 

 again recur to other winter-flowering Orchids as opportunity. occurs. 



F. W. B. 



