1873.] NEW OR RARE ORCHIDS. 495 



Glasgow, and which has borne forty- four flowers at Hie sawe time ! 

 Imagine forty-four great rosy purple flowers nearly 5 inches across, 

 each furnished with a gorgeous crimson velvet lip, the throat suffused 

 with golden-yellow, and you have some idea of this magnificent hybrid. 

 The latest novelty in the way of Orchids is another new hybrid 

 Cattleya scarcely inferior to the last, but partly belonging to a different 

 division of the genus. This has just been named C. fausta, and is a 

 gorgeous beauty raised from C. Loddigesii and C. Exoniensis itself, a 

 sure proof of the constitutional vigour possessed by the last-named 

 hybrid. The sepals and petals of this new-comer — and most welcome 

 addition to the list of hybrid Orchids — closely resemble those of C. 

 Loddigesii, but in addition to being larger, they possess more of the 

 rich rosy-purple tint peculiar to Cattleya mossiae and C. Exoniensis. 

 The lip is peculiar ; its lateral lobes are pale, and shaped like those of 

 C. Loddigesii, while the central lobe comes nearer to that of C. Exoni- 

 ensis both in size, colour, and markings, being of a velvety-purple 

 most beautifully marked, and golden-yellow in the throat. The 

 flowers are now very fine, but doubtless as the plant develops itself it 

 will astonish even its raisers in size and beauty of colouring. Another 

 interesting hybrid Cattleya raised some years ago is also flowering, C. 

 Brabantise, a cross between C. Acklandise and C. Loddigesii. This is 

 a very interesting hybrid, the sepals and petals being shaped like 

 those of C. Acklandiae and most beautifully marked with dark-purple 

 blotches, the margins of which shade off into a lovely translucent 

 amethyst tint, similar to that seen in a good variety of Phalaenopsis 

 Luddemanniana. The lip reminds one of the old C. Eorbesii, being 

 small and of a yellowish white colour. 



AYe come now to a pleasing group of Lady Slippers (Cypripediums), 

 the first to hand being C. vexillarium, an hybrid exactly intermediate 

 in every particular between C. Fairreanum and the well-known C. 

 barbatum or Bearded Lady's Slipper. Its petals are pendulous and 

 curved exactly like those of the first named, while the standard or top 

 sepal is green at the base tipped with pure white, and striped with 

 purple and green lines like C. barbatum. In habit, the plant throws 

 out its leaves horizontally like C Fairreanum, and has them variegated, 

 although not so decidedly as its other parent the Bearded Lady's Slip- 

 per. Another, C. Harrisianum, is a hybrid between the last named (C. 

 barbatum) and C. viliosum. It is a strong grower, stronger in fact 

 than either of its parents, having fine fresh green foliage marbled with 

 darker green. Its flowers are as large or even larger than those of 

 C. viliosum, and are darker coloured, although the bright varnished 

 appearance of the latter is preserved. This is a remarkably free 

 bloomer and keeps on growing and flowering all the year. It should 



