LAELIA XANTHINA. 
[Pate 23. | 
Native of Brazil. 
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs clavate fusiform, the narrowed base closely invested by 
imbricating bracts, monophyllous. Leaves oblong-lorate, bluntish, coriaceous, longer 
than the pseudobulbs, and with them reaching to about a foot in height. Scape 
four to six flowered, issuing from a terminal linear-oblong acute compressed bract or 
spathe, three-fourths of an inch wide and about four inches long, and of a pale 
green colour. Flowers leathery in texture, three to four inches across, very distinct 
im aspect; sepals and petals oblong-ligulate obtuse, undulated, the sides rolled back 
so that they appear convex, the petals most. so, both of a deep golden yellow, more 
or less stained or flushed with olive-green ; lip cucullate, subquadrate, obtusely three- 
lobed at the apex, yolk of egg colour, paler at the edge, the front border white, 
and marked on the disc by a few crimson-purple veins, which are not raised like 
crests above the surface, as in the allied JL. flava. Column semiterete, clavate, 
lobulate at the apex, projected forwards, about as long as the entire edges of the 
p and convergent therewith. 
Leia xantutna, Lindley, in Botanical Magazine, t. 5144; Bateman, Second 
Century of Orchidaceous Plants, t. 180; Rand, Orchids, 303. 
_ Buerta xanrarna, Reichenbach fil., in Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematic, 
vi. 425; Id. Xenia Orchidacea, ii. 54. 
This interesting and distinct-looking Lelia was introduced from Brazil many — 
years ago by Messrs. Backhouse & Son, of York, but from the limited quantity then 
obtained it has always remained a scarce plant. It appears to have been imported 
about 1858, as it was fizured in 1859 in the Botanical Magazine, as above quoted. 
It is, indeed, with great pleasure that we are enabled to introduce to our readers 
a figure of so rare and so distinct a species, for it is seldom seen in collections, 
having always been a rare plant. The colour of the flowers is of a nankeen-yellow, 
consequently they strongly contrast with those of the generality of Orchids of this 
a the usual colours of which are purple, or rose colour in various tints, ot 
Our plate was prepared from a drawing which was made in September last 
from a Plant which flowered in our own collection. It will be seen from the 
Tepresentation, which is a very faithful one, that Lelia sxanthina is really a very 
Pretty species, and one that our collectors ought to be looking after, so that Orchid 
towers may have it supplied to them at a more. reasonable price than at present. 
