THE CATTLEYA HOUSE 9 



C. H. Harrington ; with Catt. quadricolor, Mitchelii ; with 

 Catt. Warcewiczii, Atalanta. Catt. Victoria Regina also is 

 assumed to be a natural hybrid of Leopoldii with Catt. 

 labiata. There may be other crosses probably, since no 

 official record of Hybridisation exists as yet. Curiously 

 enough, however, no one seems to have mated Cattleya 

 Leopoldii with Laslia purpurata so far as I can learn. Thus 

 it is not yet proved that L. elegans sprang from that alliance. 

 But the hybridisers have an opening here not less profit- 

 able than interesting. For the natural supply is exhausted 



if any stickler for accuracy object that some still arrive every 

 year, they may overhaul their Boswell and make a note. 

 Sir, said his hero, if I declare that there is no fruit in an 

 orchard, I am not to be charged with speaking falsely because 

 a man, examining every tree, finds two apples and three 

 pears — I have not the book at hand to quote the very words. 

 When L. elegans was discovered, in 1847, it must have been 

 plentiful in its native home beyond all other species on record. 

 The first collectors so described it. But that home was a very 

 small island, where it clung to the rocks. Every plant 

 within reach has long since been cleared away ; those remain- 

 ing dwell in perilous places on the cliffs. To gather them a 

 man must be let down from above, or he must risk his life 

 in climbing from below. But under these conditions the 

 process of extermination still proceeds, and in a time to be 

 counted by months it will be complete. 



In describing a few of the most precious varieties at 

 Woodlands, I may group them in a manner to display by 

 contrast the striking diversities which an orchid may assume 

 while retaining the essential points that distinguish it from 

 others. One form, however, I must mention here, for it is 

 too common to be classed among peculiarities, yet to my 

 mind its colouring is the softest and most dainty of all. 

 Petal and sepal are ' stone-colour,' warmed, one cannot say 



