5.26 COOL ORCUID GROWING. 



yellow, the lateral sepals having each four red lines; lip 

 trilobed, with a hairy centre or disc. Grows well in peat and 

 sphagnum, and produces its golden blossoms very freely, 

 lasting from four to six weeks in bloom. It is also called 

 Epiphora pubescens. 



Restrepia. 



A genus of small growing plants, very nearly related to the 

 Pleurothallids, and scarcely more showy. They grow well in 

 a very cool temperature, potted in peat and sphagnum, and 

 Tequire to be kept moist all the year round. 



*B. antennifera (Columbia). — A curious species. Its slender 

 stems are about two inches high, each bearing a solitary 

 ovate leaf, from the base of wliich the flower-spike is produced. 

 Sepals long, of a yellowish white and rosy crimson colour, 

 heavily spotted and dotted with purple, the lower sepals being 

 'darkest ; petals slender, pale yellow dotted with purple, and, 

 like the sepals, having curiously blunt rounded apices. It 

 flowers freely through the whole summer months, and should 

 be grown by all who are fond of vegetable curiosities. 



B. elegans (Columbia). — This is a smaller-flowered form, very 

 similar to the last in colour, and equally curious in its struc- 

 "ture. Flowers freely in a cool house. 



Sobralia. 



This genus is quite distinct in habit from most other classes 

 -of Orchids. The growth resembles that of Keeds, often 

 reaching from five to seven feet in height, and is clothed with 

 dark-green ovate-lanceolate leaves. The flowers are produced 

 ■from the apex of these tal], slender stems, and are large, hand- 

 some blooms, of a white, lilac, rosy-pnrple, or rich crimson 

 colour, according to the species; and, when the plants are 

 well grown, they are produced in abundance. Sobralias grow well 

 in the warm end of the cool house, in a rough compost of 



