CATTLEYA MENDELIT GRANDIFLORA. - 
[Puate 3.] 
Native of the United States of Columbia. 
- 
Epiphytal. Stems oblong, club-shaped, furrowed when mature, twelve to eighteen 
inches high. aves solitary coriaceous, ligulate-oblong, acute, dark green above, 
paler beneath. Scape three to four-flowered, issuing from a terminal oblong com- 
pressed bract, which is three to four inches long, and an inch broad. Flowers very 
large and exceedingly handsome, measuring eight inches across; sepals an inch 
wide, lanceolate, recurved, white ; petals spreading, clawed, broadly ovate, measuring 
nearly three inches across, plane towards the base prettily frilled in the anterior 
portion, the apex recurved, white, with a scarcely perceptible tint of blush near 
the edge ; lip obovate emarginate, three and a, quarter inches long, the basal ha 
entire, rolled over the column, the anterior portion expanded and_ beautifully fringed, 
about two inches in breadth and rather more in depth, the apical half occupied 
with a solid blotch of rich magenta rose, passing to white at the frilled edge, the 
side portions white, the disk and throat of a delicate tint of nankeen yellow, the 
_ extreme base white, with numerous divergent lines of magenta rose, a few of which 
{about two) run out to join the blotch at the tip of the anterior lobe. Column 
about half as long as the convolute base of the lip, club-shaped, decurved, semiterete, 
with a rounded keel at the back. 
CATTLEYA MENDELIIT GRANDIFLORA, supra. 
4 
—+ 
When Cattleya Mendelix was first flowered by S. Mendel, Esq., some few years 
ago, many botanists were of opinion that it was not sufficiently dissimilar from, but 
only a variety of, C. Triane. Since that time it has been flowered in many different 
collections with but little variation of character, and, as we think, has fully vin- 
dicated its right, whether as a species or race, to be regarded as a distinct Orchid 
of first-rate merit. : 
The subject of our plate is a gigantic variety of the Cattleya Mendelii, which 
has just flowered in our own collection. It proves to be in every way larger, and 
altogether superior, to the old type, the flowers having much more substance, and 
being of better form, which results from the greater width of the lip and _ petals. 
The sepals and petals are white, the latter being very broad and of good substance, 
while the lip is broad and well fringed, pure white in its upper part, with a 
large bright magenta patch at the front part, and the throat is orange, with 
reddish crimson veins, which stand out in fine contrast against the pure white of 
the remaining portions of the flower. It produces as many as four flowers on a 
spike, each flower measuring over eight inches across, and the flowers are thrown 
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