L^LIA CINNABARINA 



[Plate 314.] 



Kative of Brazil. 



Epipliytal. Pseudohulhs slender, sub-cylindrical, somewhat flask-shaped, swollen 

 at the base and tapering upwards, from six to ten inches high, clothed with 

 sheathing membraneous scales, and bearing on the summit one, sometimes two 

 erect, linear- oblong, acute, rugose, deep green leaves, which are sometimes suffused 

 with a purplish hue. Scape issuing from between a long ancij^ital sheath, terminal, 

 erect, slender, longer than the leaves, racemose and many-flowered ; sepals and 

 petals narrow, spreading, nearly equal, linear-lanceolate and acuminate, fleshy in 

 texture, and of a uniform bright cinnabar-red, or orange-vermilion colour ; lip three- 

 lobed, the side lobes oblong-acute, convolute over the column, orange colour veined 

 and suffused with red on the inner side, anterior lobe somewhat ovate, recurved 

 and crispate, with- three elevated lines on the disc. Column short, clavate, and 

 triquete. 



L^LiA CINNABARINA, Lindley, Sertiwi Orchidaceum, t. 28, 1838 ; Botanical Magazine^ 

 t. 4302 ; Paxton's Magazine of Botany, vii., p. 193, with tab.; RegeVs Gartenjlora, 

 1867, t. 559 ; Williams, Orchid-Grower^ s Manned, 6 ed., p. 354, 



Bletia CINNABARINA, ReicJienbach Jil., Xenia Orchidacea, ii., p. 61. 



In previous numbers of this work we have already figured several beautiful species 

 and varieties of Lselias bearing large flowers, such as L. autumnalis atro-riihens, 

 L. elegans, L. purpurata Williamsii, L. crispa Buchananiana, L. anceps, &c., &c. 

 The species whose portrait we now lay before our readers is, however, a somewhat 

 small-flowered but charming kind, which, on account of the brilliancy of its flowers, 

 is highly appreciated by all those who admire bright colours. Other species 



similar to and nearly allied to L. cinnaharina are L. harpopTiylla (the sword 



leaved Laelia), and the yellow-flowered L. flava ; the former, although a beautiful 

 kind, does not, however, produce such a fine spike of bloom, whilst the latter, which 

 is figured in our fifth volume, plate 220, produces flowers similar in shape, but 

 they are of a light orange -yellow colour. 



Lwlia cinnaharina is an old inhabitant of our plant stoves, having been intro- 

 duced in the year 1836 from the provinces of Minas Geraes and Eio Janeiro, in 

 Brazil, where it is said to grow wild upon -rocks, amongst other herbage, at 

 considerable elevations (2,500 to 3,500 feet). It was first exhibited in bloom in 

 this country, in the year 1837, at the Eoyal Horticultural Society's meeting, held 

 in their Eegent Street Eooms, by the late Mi. Young, of the then celebrated 

 Epsom Nurseries. Our drawing was taken from a fine specimen grown in the 

 Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Upper Holloway. 



