WARM ORCHIDS. 115 
but an engineer who visited the coast but two years 
ago informs me that no one ever wandered into 
“the bush.” Collectors have not been there, 
assuredly. So there may be connecting links 
between C. Dowzana and C. aurea in that vast 
wilderness, but it is quite possible there are none. 
Words could not picture the glory of these 
marvels. In each the scheme of colour is yellow 
and crimson, but there are important modifications. 
Yellow is the ground all through in Cattleya aurea 
—sepals, petals, and lip; unbroken in the two 
former, in the latter superbly streaked with 
crimson. But Caétleya Dowiana shows crimson 
pencillings on its sepals, while the ground colour 
of the lip is crimson, broadly lined and reticulated 
with gold. Imagine four of these noble flowers on 
ene stalk, each half a foot across! But it lies 
beyond the power of imagination. 
C. Dowiana was discovered by Warscewicz about 
1850, and he sent home accounts too enthusiastic 
for belief. Steady-going Britons utterly refused 
to credit such a marvel—his few plants died, and 
there was an end of itforthetime. 1 may mention 
an instance of more recent date, where the eye- 
witness of a collector was flatly rejected at home. 
Monsieur St. Leger, residing at Asuncion, the 
capital of Paraguay, wrote a warm description of 
I 2 
