two grey-green, powdery, long and pointed leaves. The flowers, which are generally 
single, but occasionally in pairs, are on long peduncles which come from the 
apex of the bulb. They invariably hang downwards. The sepals and petals and lip 
are a bright and pleasing shade of yellow, the latter having a wavy white margin. 
It grows under the branches of trees in the Tierra Fria, at an elevation of from 
6000 to 7000 feet. It is best grown attached to a block of tree fern or a piece of 
hardwood with a little sphagnum moss and a small piece of fibre beneath it. 
The leaves should hang downwards. It should be grown in a warm but shady 
corner of a bushhouse where it can get plenty of light, but is protected from the 
direct sun rays. Ordinary bushhouse conditions should suit this plant from Sydney 
right to the far North. It requires rather less applied water than most of the 
species, but likes the atmosphere to be on the moist side. This plant was one of the 
first Cattleyas used for hybridisation, it having been crossed with Cattleya inter- 
media. Since then it has often been used, particularly in the creation of certain 
types of yellow hybrids. 
CATTLEYA DOWIANA. Native of Costa Rica. 
An outstanding species, both in beauty of form and in colouring and fragrance. 
It has strong stems about a foot in height thickening towards the top from 
which a single oblong, rounded leaf is produced. Flower scape grows through a 
sheath at the end of the bulb. There are usually two flowers, but in strong plants 
the number of blooms on the one spike may be as many as seven. These flowers 
are of good size, being usually about seven inches or more across, and having 
sepals and petals of a rich, Nankin yellow shade, with a purple or rosy blush 
underneath. Lip large and broad, of a deep crimson-purple, often shaded with a 
rosy bloom and streaked with varying quantities of gold. Its flowering season is 
towards the end of Summer. Costa Rica, the natural habitat of this plant, is a 
low-lying republic on the northern end of the Isthmus of Darien. In no part 
of it does the terrain rise above 3000 feet, and being close to the equator its clim- 
ate is uniformly warm, rarely falling below 60° and averaging 70° all through 
the year. There is heavy rainfall for nine months of the year, the Summer falls 
being round about 10 inches per month. In the Winter the rainfall is approxi- 
mately 2-4 inches per month. From this it will be seen that Dowiana needs warm 
conditions with copious moisture throughout the Spring and Summer seasons, 
but with much less during the Autumn and Winter periods. This plant also revels 
in plenty of light, so that for best results it should be suspended as close to the 
glass as possible in the warmest corner of a glasshouse. 
Variety AUREA (Syn. Cattleya aurea). 
Sepals and petals rich primrose yellow. Lip rich purple crimson with streaks of 
golden yellow, flowering period late Autumn. Treatment as for type. 
CATTLEYA GASKELLIANA. Native of Venezuela. 
A fine species of the labiata group. Pseudobulbs are short, stout, thickest in the 
middle, deeply furrowed and bear one shining, leathery, dark green leaf. The 
59 
