94 COOL ORCHID GROWING. 



lanceolate, from twelve to eighteen inches long. Flowers 

 produced from the base of the ripened pseudo bulbs, solitary, 

 on scapes from six to nine inches high; sepals and petals 

 creamy white ; lip white, ciliated or fringed along its margin. 

 South America; blooming in October. This is often met 

 with in collections as Lycaste BarringtoniaB. 



L. Skinner I (Guatemala, 1842). — One of the most profuse 

 flowering Orchids we have, and very easy to cultivate. It 

 sports into numerous distinct and beautiful varieties, varying 

 in colour from the purest white to the deepest rose and 

 crimson, and though essentially a winter-flowering Orchid, 

 some of its varieties bloom during the summer. Flowers 

 from four to six inches across, solitary, on scapes six, nine, or 

 twelve inches high ; sepals and petals white, more or less 

 suffused with rose ; lip rosy lilac, often very heavily blotched 

 with the deepest rosy crimson. This plant generally flowers 

 from ITovember to March, and lasts in flower from two to four 

 months. It is one of the best of all Orchids for the decora- 

 tion of apartments, as it will keep in perfection in a drawing- 

 room vase for a month or six weeks. Even its flowers when cut 

 last several weeks, and are very lovely mixed with Ferns and 

 other exotics. The flowers are very delicately perfumed, and 

 are admirable for the decoration of ladies' hair. 

 Masdevallia. 

 "This is a large genus of very cool Orchids, many of which 

 come from the higher ranges of the Peruvian Andes, where 

 they luxuriate in cool, moist localities. They are of the 

 easiest possible culture, growing and producing abundant 

 crops of their curious trifid, caudate blossoms nearly all the 

 year round. They should be placed in small pots in a compost 

 of fibrous peat, fresh sphagnum, crocks, and a little fibrous 

 loam — that which has been sifted and the fibrous lumps op.ly 

 retained being best. They will be found to luxuriate in 



