LALIA PURPURATA WILLIAMSII. 
[PLaTes 9—10. | 
Native of St. Catherine’s, Brazil. 
Epiphytal. Stems (or pseudobulbs) clavate-oblong, monophyllous, two feet or more 
in height, somewhat furrowed when mature. Leaves coriaceous, evergreen, narrowly 
oblong, emarginate, dark green. Scape three to four-flowered, issuing from a stout 
sheathing oblong bract or spathe, four to five inches long. Flowers large, and very 
handsome ; measurin _ eight inches across, of a delicate rose colour, with a purple- 
crimson lip; 5 8¢ inear-lanceolate, acute, of a pale rosy tint, pencilled with simple 
rosy-purple longitudinal lines; petals oblong: aa obtuse, of a beautiful delicate 
rose colour, pencilled with divergent forke 
lines of deeper phat g lip (labellum) 
three-lobed, the lateral lobes obsolete, convolute around ‘the column, the front lobe 
large, broad, and roundish, of a rich dark crimson- nta, the tip» paler and reticulately 
veined, and the throat yellow, beautifully veine with crimson- magenta, Column 
scarcely reaching to the middle of the convolute base of the lip. 
Lanta purpurata Wiiuramstt, Hort.; Williams’ Orchid Grower's Manual, ed. 4, 
196; e@ 5, 208 
The species, of which this is one of the finest known varieties, and as genus 
Lelia to which it belongs, together with the neighbouring genus Cattleya, are placed 
by the great Orchidist, Reichenbach, in his amplified genus Bletia, so that the Lelia 
purpurata of Lindley, in Paston’s Flower Garden, becomes the Bletia purpurata of 
Reichenbach in Walpers’ Annales, vi. 423. The name of Lelia is, however, that 
which is adopted amongst cultivators of Orchids. 
The Lelia which we have now to describe, was named many years ago in the 
Orchid Grower's Manual, when it was exhibited at the Crystal Palace and reéeived 
its present appellation. The plant now represented was flowered at the Victoria and — 
Paradise Nurseries, but has now passed into the select collection of Baron Schréder, 
of The Dell, near Staines. It was a wonderfully strong plant, and produced two 
spikes of its highly coloured blossoms, which led all those who saw it in its beauty, 
to pronounce it to be the finest Jealia they had ever witnessed. Our artist has 
given a good representation of the plant and its blossoms. The club-shaped stems 
_and foliage stood thirty inches in height, and were provided with very strong ~ 
sheathing bracts whence the flower-spikes issued, each bearing four flowers, which 
were individually eight inches in diameter. It has bloomed with us in the same 
style for two successive years. The plant that we flowered some years ago was 
not so large as that now figured, the reason being that it was not so strong a 
specimen, and, therefore, not able to produce such fine flowers, This is sufficient, 
D 
