CATTLEYA MOSSLEZ DECORA. 
[PuatTe 421.] 
Native of La Guayra. 
Epiphytal. Psewdobulbs and growth not. differing from that of the typical 
plant. Flowers very large, being between seven and eight inches across; spreading 
and richly coloured; sepals lanceolate, somewhat narrow, entire at the margins, with 
recurved tips; petals much broader than the sepals, elliptic-ovate in outline, irregularly 
crisp and undulated on the margins, ground colour deep rich rose, the petals faintly 
streaked near the tips with crimson; lip broadly obovate, spreading in front, three- 
lobed ; side lobes convolute over the column, and there coloured the same as the petals ; 
the spreading front lobe is beautifully lobed and crenulated on the margin, emarginate 
in front, rich orange-yellow at the base, over which is spread a layer of deep crimson, 
passing into rosy lilac, with a soft rose-coloured marginal border. Colwmn included. 
CaTTLEYA MossL& DECORA, supra. 
In bringing this form of Cattleya Mossiw before the notice of our 
readers, we are reminded that as a species it was one of the greatest favourites 
of the late head of our firm, our respected father, Mr. B. S. Williams. It 
is one of the largest of the Jabiata section, to which it belongs, and was 
~ named by Sir William Hooker in honour of Mrs. Moss, of Otterspool, Liverpool ; 
at the present day we are told this collection is still in existence. We 
are under the impression that it was the first species of this section introduced 
after the genus was established, and it is one of the very handsomest of that set 
at the present day, whilst the varieties are innumerable. It appears to be a native 
of Venezuela, and to have a somewhat limited range of country; but the quantity 
in which it exists there has been described to us in glowing terms by Burschell, 
who travelled in Venezuela in 1855—6, and it was from the importation of C. Mossie 
brought home by him at that time that the C. Wagenerii first originated in English 
gardens. The plant here figured flowered in our collection in the Victoria and 
Paradise Nurseries, Upper Holloway, London, during the summer of 1890, and it 
has been designated decora from the exquisite gracefulness and beauty of its flowers, 
Cattleya Mossie decora is an evergreen, compact-growing plant, and, like all 
the varieties of C. Mossiw, very free flowering if properly grown and managed, a 
proper season of rest being essentially necessary to the proper development of good 
flowers. Under the old system of growing Cattleyas, an excessive heat was 
maintained, with very little ventilation and with drenchings of water, the latter 
Vv 
