CATTLEYA MENDELIL BELLA. 
[PLATE 225. ] 
Native of Colombia. 
Epiphytal. Stems oblong, club-shaped as in the type, twelve to eighteen inches 
high, monophyllous. Leaves coriaceous, ligulate-oblong, of a dark green colour. 
Scapes two or three-flowered, issuing from a compressed oblong terminal bluntish 
bract or sheath. Flowers of large size, expanding nearly or quite seven inches in 
both directions; sepals lanceolate, entire, plane, recurved at the tips, of a very pale 
blush white, one and a quarter inch wide; petals broadly ovate, three inches across, 
the margins gently undulated, and in the anterior part denticulated, of a delicate 
blush white; with a paler bar down the centre; lip ample, obovate, with the front 
rounded deeply emarginate, lobe two and a half inches across and of the same width, 
the basal half entire, rolled over and enclosing the column, the anterior lobe 
squarish in outline, with about one half of its surface golden yellow veined wit 
paler yellow, and having the edge, which is spread out and meets over the throat, 
whitish as is also the exterior of the tubular portion; the other or front half is of a 
fine bluish mauve colour shaded by a darker mauve lilac, traversed by flabellate 
and more or less anastomosing white veins, which produce a remarkably fine contrast. 
Column enclosed, decurved, semiterete. 
Cattieya Menpeti Betta, Williams and Moore, supra. 
- CATTLEYA LABIATA BELLA, Reichenbach fil., in Gardeners’ Chronicle, N.8., XVil., 
There is no doubt that the varieties of Cattleya of the section represented 
by C. Mendelii are amongst the most beautiful forms of this very handsome genus. 
They include amongst them many forms and numerous variations of colour, from 
pure white to mauve and rich magenta-crimson, having the labellum blotched with 
rich shades of orange and yellow. ‘The variety, of which we now present an 
illustration to our readers, is a very distinct and beautiful one, which is also a free 
grower and a profuse bloomer, and is, moreover, a rare plant. We are indebted, 
for the Opportunity of figuring it, to G. Hardy, Esq., Pickering Lodge, Timperley, 
in whose fine and well-grown collection of Orchids this plant formed a conspicuous 
feature. We consider it to be a great acquisition to the genus. 
Cattleya Mendelii bella is like C. Mendelii itself in its habit of growth. 
It bears leathery oblong leaves of a dark green colour, and very large and showy 
flowers which stand out boldly above them, and are of fine form and firm substance. 
Sepals and petals are blush white, and the lip in its posterior part is of a fine 
- hag yellow veined with paler yellow, and in its anterior part of a dark mauve- 
ile veined with white. The flowers are produced during the months of May and 
June, and last for three weeks in perfection if they are kept free from Gauip. 
K 
