THE CATTLEYA HOUSE 27 



letters. In due course he brought them to St. Albans along 

 with his Odontoglossums. Mr. Mau said nothing even while 

 the cases were being unpacked. Apparently he had forgotten 

 them. 



' What are these Cattleyas ? ' asked Mr. Sander, in 

 surprise. 



' Oh, I don't know ! I found them in the woods.' 



Old spikes still remained upon the plants, and bunches of 

 withered rags at the end. Mr. Sander perceived, first, that 

 the flower must be gigantic beyond belief; next, that it 

 was red. 



' Go back by next mail ! ' he cried. ' Search the woods 

 — gather every one ! ' And Mr. Mau did actually return 

 by next mail. 



This was Cattleya Sanderiana — sometimes as much as 

 eleven inches across ; in colour, a tender rosy-mauve. The 

 vast lip is almost square, with a throat of gold, lined and 

 netted over with bright crimson. It has the charming 

 ' eyes ' of gigas in perfection, and the enormous disc, 

 superbly frilled, is of the liveliest magenta crimson. 



Chrysotoxa^ another of these wondrous hybrids, ' favours ' 

 its aurea parent ; with buff- yellow petals and sepals, the 

 lower of which hang in a graceful bunch surrounding the 

 huge lip of dark orange ground, with an edging of maroon- 

 crimson, narrow above, widening to a stately breadth 

 below ; the whole closely covered with branching lines of 

 crimson. 



Mrs. Fred Hardy is a third — divinely beautiful. 

 White of sepal and petal, with the vast magenta-crimson lip 

 of Hardyana. The glorious effect may be in part imagined. 



We have yet a fourth of this amazing group — Trisme- 

 gistris — most nearly allied to Sanderiana. I have not seen 

 this variety in bloom ; it was introduced only three years 

 ago. But the name signifies that it is the quintessence of 



