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CATTLEYA BICOLOR. 



[Plate 318.] 



JVative of Brazil. 



Epiphytal. Pseudohulhs terete, long and slender, from a foot to two and a 

 half feet in height, jointed and deeply striated, clothed with numerous deciduous 

 pale brown sheaths, and bearing on the apex a pair of oblong-lanceolate, obtuse 

 leaves, these are slightly carinate, coriaceous in texture, and about six inches long, 

 deep green on the upper side and paler beneath. Peduncle terminal from between 

 the leaves, and bearing from two to six flowers. Floiuers from three inches to 

 four and a half inches across ; sepals spreading, the dorsal one oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute, much longer than the lateral ones, which are somewhat falcate ; petals 

 broadly spathulate and prettily crisp at the edges, colour variable, but in this 



variety the sepals and petals are of a rich bronzy olive-brown ; lip entirely destitute 



of side lobes, oblong- cuncate, reflexed, with a depressed central line, and recurved 

 dentate margin, whilst the apex is broad and bilobed, the colour in this variety is 

 wholly rich rosy purple or magenta-purple. Column broad, triquete, concave in 

 front and convex behind, quite naked and exposed through the absence of lateral 

 lobes to the lip, purple, and streaked beneath with white. 



Cattleya bicoloe, Lindley, Botanical Register, 1836, t. 1919; 1838, Misc., 

 p. 80 ; Id., Sertum Orchidaceum, t. 5, fig. 1 ; Hooker, Botanical Magazine, 

 t. 4909 ; Lemaire, Ja.rdin Fleuriste, t. 379 ; Dictionary of Gardening, 281, fig. 



384 ; Britten and GouWs Orchids for Amateurs, p. 82, with fig. ; Williams, 

 Orchid-Groiver's Manual, 6 ed., p. 174. 



Epidendre ieidee, Descourtilzs Draivings, p. 105, t. 49. 

 Epidendrum BICOLOR, ReiclienhacTi jil., Xenia Orchidacea, ii., p. 27. 



To many cultivators of Orchids this species of Cattleya is an old acquaintance, 

 it having been introduced to this country in a living state many years ago by 

 Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, and it w^as in their celebrated establishment that we 

 first saw it in flower. Hooker, in the Botanical Magazine, 1856, says, "this 

 plant was introduced by the Messrs. Loddiges in the year 1838," but in a Catalogue 



of plants cultivated at Hackney, issued in 1849, and which, as far as we know, 

 was the last one published by them, the Messrs. Loddiges record its date of intro- 

 duction as 1837. The plant, however, appears to have been first discovered by M. 

 Descourtilz in the neighbourhood of Bom Jesus de Banana!, in the province of 

 Minas Geraes. This gentleman made di\awings on the spot of his discoveries, and 



these were afterwards published by Dr. Lindley, as quoted above. It was from this 

 same locality that the Messrs. Loddiges received their plants, where it' is said to 



