LAXLIA SUPERBIENS QUESNELIANA. 
[PLaTE 383.] 
Native of Mexico and Guatemala. 
Epiphytal. Stems creeping, and bearing close together strong fusiform pseudo- 
bulbs, which when young are enveloped in several membraneous sheaths, these fall 
away with age, and the pseudobulbs become furrowed. Leaves usually in _ pairs, 
oblong-acute, leathery in texture, and deep green. Scape terminal, some five feet 
in length, bearing numerous pale brown membraneous sheathing acute bracts, and 
towards the apex a raceme of about a dozen flowers, which are large and 
showy. Sepals and petals lanceolate-acute, spreading, the latter slightly the 
broader, wavy at the edges, and rich deep rosy purple in colour; Jip pandurate, 
oblong, three-lobed, lateral lobes erect, acute, not closing over the column, anterior 
lobe oblong, emarginate, intense deep magenta-purple, waved at the edges, and 
bearing on the dise four or five elevated and fringed crests, which are rich yellow. 
Column semi-terete, slightly decurved. 
L&LIA SUPERBIENS QUESNELIANA, JTort. supra. 
The typical Lelia superbiens figured by us in the ALpum (vol. vi., t. 244) 
is a very distinct and noble Orchid, introduced to this country about the year 
1842. It is called in Guatemala the Wand of St. Joseph. ‘The first example of this 
species which came to our notice was a grand specimen collected by Hartweg 
in Guatemala, which flowered in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society 
at Chiswick many years ago. This plant was some five feet across, and bore as 
many as nine spikes of its magnificent blooms at one time. We are glad to be 
able to figure in the pages of the Apum the portrait of a superb variety of this 
grand old species, which first flowered in the gardens of M. Quesnel, of Havre, 
France. It is a lovely variety, and one that is very rarely met with in 
cultivation. 
We received a fine spike of this variety bearing a raceme of thirteen flowers 
from Holbrook Gaskell, Esq., of Woolton Wood, Woolton, Liverpool, in whose grand 
collection the plant bore two spikes, each of which was five feet in length, one 
carrying thirteen and the other eleven well-expanded blossoms. The collection of 
Orchids at this establishment is exceptionally good, and its management under 
Mr. Todd, the gardener, is well carried out. 
Lelia superbiens Quesneliana is a handsome and noble evergreen. The growth 
is similar to that of the typical plant, its fusiform stems or pseudobulbs bearing 
a pair of rigid leathery leaves on the summit. The spike springs from between the 
leaves, and attains a length of over five feet, bearing near the apex a raceme of 
