118 MILTONIA. 



Miltonias, appearcl in 1887 in tlin nursery of M. Peeters at St. Gilles, 

 Brussels, and is named in conii)linient ti) M. Lubbers, Curator of the 

 Botanic Garden of that city. 



M. festiva. 



Khizonie, ]»scudo-bulbs and leaves as in Miltonia specfahilis. The 

 2 — 3 flowered peduncles sheathed with ancipitous bracts as in that 

 species, but shorter; sepals and i)etals nearly as in AI. flavescens, light 

 yellow ; li]i more that of M. s]^)ectahUh, but with an acute apex, light 

 piu'ple. 



Miltonia festiva, lirhb. in Gnrd. Chron. 1868, p. 572. 



A supposed natural hybrid between Miltovia s^jectahilis and J/. 

 f(wei<cnh^. It was sent for identification to Professor Eeichenbach in 

 1865 by M. Liiddemann, of Paris; a few years later it appeared in 

 Messrs. Low's nursery at Clapton, and in 1877 a plant flowered in our 

 Chelsea nursery. Since that date we find no evidence of its being in 

 cultivation. 



Garden Hybrids. 



'J'he only hybrid Miltouia raised artificially that has yet flowered 

 is that here described^ and which has been obtained by two 

 operators from the crossing of the same pair of species, first by 

 M. Bleu, of Paris, Secretaire General de la Societe nationale de 

 ^Horticulture de France, and secondly by ourselves. 



Miltonia Bleuana. 



M. vexiUaria x M. Roezlii. 

 Vegetati\^e organs nearly as in Miltonia vexiUaria. Flowers 3— 4 

 inches across vertically ; sepals and petals intermediate, the former Avholly 

 white, the latter white with a rose-purple stain at the base ; lip also 

 intermediate, having the broader obcordate form of M. Roezlii and the 

 apical sinus but not so deep, of M. vexiUaria, white with a fan- 

 shaped rayed red-lirown blotch in front of the yellow disk which is also 

 internuMliate in shape between that of the two parents. 



Miltonia Bleuana, Gard. Chron. V. s. 3 (1889), p. '203. Lijidenia, IV. t. 176. 

 Sander's Reichenbaclda, 1. s. 2, t. 32. Williams' Orch. Alb. IX. t. 412 (splendens). 

 M. Bleui, Godefroy's Orchidopliile, 1889, p. 45. Id. Miltonopsis Bleui, p. 145, 

 with fig. 



Suh-VSir.— aurea {Orchidojjhile, 1889, p. 145, with fig.), flowers white with 

 a faint flush of light rose at the base of the |)etals, and with the 

 yellow disk at the base of the lip somewhat enlarged. 



The seeds obtained by M. Bleu from his cross were sown in April, 

 1884, and tlie flrst flower cx[)anded early in January, 1889. Seden's 

 cross was effected a little later ; the seeds were not sown till January, 



