84 COOL ORCHID GROWING. 



minal, erect, bearing 'from ten to twenty flowers ; individual 

 flowers an inch and a half across, of a creamy white colour, 

 spotted with dark purple ; lip white, tinged with pink, and 

 having a triangular blotch of crimson purple ; flowers in June 

 and July, lasting a month or six weeks in beauty. 



E. vltellinum (Mexico, 1840). This showy species is 

 one of the best in the whole genus, bearing a profusion of 

 bright orange-scarlet flowers ; some varieties bear flowers two 

 inches across, and ten to fifteen on an erect spike. The foliage of 

 this plant is glaucous, like that of Cattleya citrina ; it grows 

 freely in peat and sphagnum, placed in a shallow pan, and 

 suspended near the light in a cool house. It is a splendid and 

 compact exhibition plant when well grown, good specimens 

 producing from twenty to thirty spikes of glowing scarlet 

 flowers, which last good at least a month or six weeks. 



a. E. vitelUnum majus is one of its most distinct and best 

 varieties. A fine plant of it, in the collection of F. B. Dodgeson, 

 Esq., of Blackburn, has been exhibited with twenty-five fine 

 spikes on it. 



Eriopsis. 



This is a small genus of South American sub -terrestrial 

 Orchids not often met with in collections ; in their native 

 habitats they are found on the margins of streams, their 

 roots often descending into the water ; they require a 

 moderate temperature, with a copious supply of water when 

 growing ; they grow best potted in fresh peat and living 

 sphagnum. 



*E. 'bilo'ba. This plant has been recently imported, and is 

 very distinct in habit ; pseudo -bulbs from five to eight 

 inches, or even more, in length, conical, of a dark brown 

 colour, corrugated like shagreen leather, and bearing from two 

 to three broad lanceolate leaves at their apices ; flower- spike 

 a foot to eighteen inches long, curved or drooping; flowers 



