CATTLEYA MAXIMA BACKHOUSEI. 
[PuaTe 193. ] 
Native of Peru. 
Epiphytal. Stems short, plump, club-shaped, of a pale green colour. Leaves 
light green, thick, firm, rather erect, oblong, emarginate. Peduncles stout, issuing 
from a short oblong compressed sheath, and. supporting a short corymbiform raceme 
of four to five closely set blosso owers of a particularly bright lilae- rose 
or dilute magenta, uniform in tint eo as to the veining of the lip; sepals 
linear- lanceolate, plane, entire at the margin, scarcely paler than the Satie” two and 
a half inches long : petals oblong, plane and cuneate at the base, slightly frilled 
near the apex, deep lilac-rose, moderately spreading, nearly three inches long; lip 
with a thick claw, the basal lobes folded so as to meet over the column, of which 
they are twice the length, the front edge prettily frilled throughout, and meeting 
over the mouth of the tubulose portion ; ‘throat yellow within, marked with magenta 
Imes to the base, the yellow colour extending forwards along the central line as 
far as the mouth in one broadish pale yellow stripe, the rest “of the limb and the 
front portion of the tube beautifully veined with deep magenta on the lighter magenta 
ground, the veins becoming paler near the margin, and vanishing before reaching it. 
Column semiterete, about half as long as the tubulose part, ‘greenish white, with 
two laterally curved lobes bending over the anther bed. 
CATTLEYA MAXIMA BackuHouset, Reichenbach fil., in Gaiilenurs Chronicle, N.s., 
xix., 624; Williams, Orchid Grower’s Manual, 6 ed., 190 
We have now the great pleasure of figuring a most beautiful form of Cattleya 
maxima, differing from the original type not only in its brilliant colour and in the 
form of its noble blossoms, but also in the shortness of its fleshy stems. It was at 
one time a very rare plant, but it has of late been imported both in large and 
small masses, and there is little doubt that these may include several varieties differing 
more or less in colour from that which forms the subject of our plate. All that we 
have seen have, however, been well worthy of cultivation; even the old form of 
C. maxima has flowers of a beautiful pink colour, with the lip finely veined. 
Our drawing of the fine variety named after Messrs. Backhouse & Son, 4 
York, was taken. from a specimen in the collection of R. J. Measures, Esq., 
Cambridge Lodge, Camberwell, who is forming a good collection of Orchids, Pe 
whose son also takes a great interest in these plants. 
Cattleya maxima Backhousei is a dwarf compact evergreen plant, having pale 
green stems and foliage, in which peculiarities it is distinct from all others. The 
sepals and petals are of a light magenta, and the lip is of the same ground colour, 
but distinctly veined with deep magenta- ae It blooms after the growth is 
B 
