HOT ORCHIDS, 
153 
rocks in the little island of Sta. Catarina, Brazil, 
in company with Lelia elegans and L. pur- 
purata. There the four dwelt in such numbers 
only twenty years ago that the supply was 
thought inexhaustible. It has come to an end 
already, and collectors no longer visit the spot. 
Cliffs and ravines which men still young can 
recollect ablaze with colour, are as bare now as a 
stone-quarry. Nature had done much to protect 
her treasures; they flourished mostly in places 
which the human foot cannot reach — Lelia 
elegans and Cattleya g. Leopoldi inextricably 
entwined, clinging to the face of lofty rocks. The 
blooms of the former are white and mauve, of the 
latter chocolate-brown, spotted with dark red, the 
lip purple. A wondrous sight that must have 
been in the time of flowering. It is lost now, 
probably for ever. Natives went down, sus- 
pended on a rope, and swept the whole circuit of 
the island, year by year. A fewspecimens remain 
in nooks absolutely inaccessible, but those happy 
mortals who possess a bit of L. elegans should 
treasure it, for more are very seldom forthcoming. 
Lelia elegans Statteriana is the finest variety 
perhaps; the crimson velvet tip of its labellum 
is as clearly and sharply-defined upon the snow- 
white surface as pencil could draw; it looks like 
