LIST OP COOL ORCHIDS. 63 



crimson, purple, and gold. Some species have these colours 

 delicately shaded into each other with indescribable softness, 

 while others surprise us by the lavish manner in which masses 

 of pure, glowing colour arc boldly contrasted with the purest 

 of white grounds. Cattleyas grow best in pots in good fresh 

 fibrous peat and living sphagnum; they all luxuriate in a 

 moist but airy atmosphere, and a moderately cool temperature ; 

 some few of the small-growing species, as C. Aclandiee, C. 

 Walkoriana (bulbosa), C. citrina, and C. marginata, do best on 

 blocks or in small, shallow pans suspended near the light. 



*C. bulbosa (Brazil, 1846). — A dwarf species, rarely exceeding 

 six inches in height ; it has a habit of making two growths in 

 the season, and often flowers from both ; its flowers are of a 

 good size, and borne one and two together ; they are four and 

 five inches across, of a bright rosy lilac colour. It should 

 either be grown on a block with a little living sphagnum Moss 

 or grown in a shallow pan, in fibrous peat, sphagnum, and lumps 

 of charcoal, well drained, and suspended near the glass ; 

 February and March ; lasting four and five weeks in beauty. 



*C. citrina (Mexico, 1838). — This is a very handsome and 

 strikingly unique species, there being no other Cattleya that 

 approaches it in habit or colour. Its pseudo-bulbs are as 

 large as pigeons' eggs, covered with a silvery membrane when 

 young. Two to three leaved ; leaves f i^om six to ten inches 

 long and a bout one inch broad, of a pale glaucous colour. 

 Flowers solitary from the latest developed bulbs, and of a 

 bright uniform lemon-yellow colour, most deliciously per- 

 fumed. The flowers are stout and of a waxy consistence, 

 lasting about a month in beauty. It should be grown down- 

 wards, on a block, and dipped in tepid water once or twice a 

 day when growing. 



*C. crispa (Rio Janeiro, 18'26).— Also known in some col- 

 lections as Loelia crispa. It is a grand old Orcliid — one of the 



