in ee: 
CALANTHE VEITCHIL. 
[PuaTEe 31. | 
A Garden Hybrid. 
Terrestrial. Pseudobulbs fleshy, conical, bluntly angular, four to six imches in 
height. Leaves deciduous, about two from the apex of each pseudobulb, lanceolate, 
narrowed both towards the base and apex, plicate or plaited, of a bright green, 
produced before the flowers. Scapes radical, downy, invested in the lower part with 
sheathing bracts, and each supporting a tall showy raceme of flowers, sometimes reaching 
three to four feet long. lowers abundant, each subtended by an ovate bract, of a 
very attractive and pleasing tint of rich deep rosy pink, darker in some varieties ; 
sepals oblong lanceolate, the dorsal one erect, the lateral ones spreading, deep rose- 
pink; petals of the same form and colour, patent, directed upwards; lip adherent to 
the column, round which it is rolled at the base, front part clawed, and expanded into 
a squarish four-lobed limb, rich rose-pink, deepening almost to crimson around the 
creamy white eye or centre, the spur straight, downy. Colwmn small, terete, downy 
at the back. 
CaLantHEe Vertcuu, Lindley, Gardeners’ Chromcle, 1859, 1016; Hooker, Botanical 
Magazine, t. 5375; Bateman, Second Century of Orchids, t. 106; Jennings, Orchids, 
t. 48; Floral Magazine, t. 280; Williams, Orchid Growers’ Manual, 5 ed., 109. 
This Hybrid is one of the most distinct and charming of Orchids, as well as 
one of the most useful for winter decoration. Our illustration was prepared from 
some admirably grown materials which were kindly sent to us from the rich 
collection of William Leach, Esq., of Oakley, Fallowfield, near Manchester, where we 
have seen as many as one hundred flower spikes of one of the most highly coloured 
forms of this somewhat variable plant in full beauty ; and, intermixed as they wire 
with the white Calanthe vestita, the effect produced was exceedingly pleasing ey 
attractive. Mr. Swan seems to have hit upon the most successful method of culti- 
vating these very charming plants, for some of the spikes bore as many as forty 
lowers. He evidently knows also how to arrange the plants to advantage, namely, 
by Placing them in rows among the foliage of the East Indian Orchids, so that the 
Calanthes, blooming as they do without their leaves, have their beauty enhanced 
by the foliage of the associated plants, especially that of the Aérides and Vandas. 
Calanthe Veitchii is of deciduous habit, losing its foliage Just 6 # ence wee 
lower. We have, however, occasionally seen it with leaves accompanying, its geben: 
though its natural habit is to lose them. It produces flower spikes from three to sig 
feet “Fr more in length, and sometimes bears as many as fifty flowers on one spike. i 
Plants are free-blooming and continue in flower for two months. The sepals mre? 2 
™ Well as the lip, are of a rich rosy pink colour. A gay appearance = tech sf 
. 
