THE CATTLEYA HOUSE 



Our Cattleya House is 187 feet long, 24 feet wide ; glass 

 screens divide it into seven compartments. The roof, of a 

 single span, is 1 1 feet high in the centre, 4 feet at the sides. 



The compartment we enter first is devoted to Laelia 

 elegans mostly. On the big block of tufa in front, blooms of 

 Cattleya and Laelia are displayed nearly all the year in small 

 tubes among the ferns and moss ; for we do not exhaust our 

 plants by leaving the flowers on them when fully open. 

 Scarlet Anthuriums crown the block, and among these, on 

 the bare stone, is a Laelia purpurata, growing strongly, worth 

 observation. For this plant was deadly sick last year, beyond 

 hope of recovery ; as an experiment Mr. Coles set it on the 

 tufa, wired down, and forthwith it began to pick up strength. 

 But in fact the species loves to fix itself on limestone when 

 at home in Santa Catarina, as does L. elegans. 



It may be desirable to point out that the difference between 

 Cattleyas and Laelias as genera is purely ' botanical ' — serious 

 enough in that point of view, but imperceptible to the eye. 



A special glory of Woodlands is the collection of L. 

 elegans. In this house, where only the large plants are stored, 

 we count five hundred ; seven hundred more are scattered up 

 and down. Nowhere in the world can be seen so many examples 

 of this exquisite variety — certainly not in its birthplace, for 

 there it is very nearly exterminated. In such a multitude, 

 rare developments of form and colour must needs abound, 



