A STORY OF BRASSAVOLA DIGBYANA 



Brassavola Digbyana is a flower for all tastes — large, 

 stately, beautiful, and supremely curious ; I use the familiar 

 name, though it should be Laelia Digbyana. Charming are 

 the great sepals and petals, greenish white, around the snowy 

 lip ; but why, the thoughtfial ask in vain, does that lip ravel 

 out into a massive fringe, branched and interlacing, near an 

 inch wide ? The effect is lovely, but the purpose inscrutable. 

 In Dendrobium Brymerianum we find a puzzle exactly 

 similar. But it does not help us to understand. Countless 

 are the species of Dendrobium, many those of Laelia ; but 

 in each case no other shows this peculiarity. 



Brassavola Digbyana was first sent to Europe in 1 845 by 

 the Governor of British Honduras, who nam.ed it in honour 

 of his kinsman, Lord Digby. Once only had the plant been 

 received since that time, so far as I can learn, until last 

 year. But the second cargo, in 1879, 'went a very long 

 way.' Messrs. Stevens have rarely been so embarrassed 

 with treasures. The history of that prodigious consignment 

 is worth recording. 



It was despatched by Messrs. Brown, Ponder, and Co., 

 of Belize, who dealt in mahogany and logwood — do still, 

 I hope. That trade appears to be rather interesting. The 

 merchant keeps a gang of Caribs, who have been in the 

 employment of the firm all their lives perhaps. They go 

 out at the proper season to find and mark the trees ; fell 



