ZYGOPETALUM CLAYII. 
[Piate 50. ] 
A Garden Hybrid. : 
Epiphytal. Psewdobulbs oblong, furrowed, two to three inches long. Leaves 
lorate-lanceolate, narrowed towards the base, nervose, persistent, about a foot and a 
half in length when mature. Scape radical, many-flowered, as long as the leaves. 
Flowers large and very showy; sepals oblong, lanceolate, acute, the lateral ones . 
spreading, purplish brown, with green margin and indistinct transverse bands, forming 
broad blotches, which are often obscurely defined; petals narrower, lanceolate acute, 
directed forwards, of the same colour as the sepals; lip broad, obcuneate, emarginate, 
bent upwards abruptly at the base towards the column, ‘so as to form a blunt chin, 
and again bent downwards, having two projecting points or auricles at the back, 
the front portion narrow at the base, nearly one and a half inch wide, indistinctly 
three-lobed, furnished on the disk with a raised plaited ruff or frill, the colour in 
the best forms a deep violet-purple, with darker purple lines. Column stout, with 
two small incurved lobes just below the anther bed, dark mottled purple behind, 
and streaked with purple in front. 
Zycorrratum Cuiayu, Reichenbach fil., in Gardeners’ Chronicle, N.8., vii., 684. 
It gives us great pleasure to be able to figure one of the finest hybrid 
Zygopetalums that has yet been raised in this country, and one, moreover, which 
is totally distinct from any other member of the genus. The plant will be 
appreciated by growers of Orchids on account of the uncommon colour of its lip 
—blue being a colour that is seldom met with amongst Orchidaceous plants, but 
one which is, nevertheless, in great request. ; 
The present novelty was raised by Colonel Clay, of Birkenhead, some few 
years ago, and was the result of a cross between Zygopetalum crinitum and 
Z. mazillare. The hybrid was exhibited at one of the meetings of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, in May, 1877, and was awarded a Certificate of Merit. 
Since that time we have acquired the stock of this plant from Colonel Clay, and 
have bloomed several specimens. The form represented by our artist in the 
accompanying plate bloomed in the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries in March last. 
We have ‘also bloomed another variety, somewhat different from the foregoing in 
the markings, the colours being the same; the lip was in this case slightly blotched, 
and the sepals and petals were suffused with brown. 
Zygopetalum Clayii is a free-growing evergreen plant, with foliage reaching to 
about eighteen inches in height. It produces its flowers at different periods of the 
year, at the time when it is starting into growth. The flowers are borne in 
