LALIA ELEGANS WOLSTENHOLMILA. 
[PLATE 285. ] : 
Native of Brazil. 
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs terete at the base, thickening upwards, becoming 
clavate and slightly furrowed, a foot and a half high. Leaves in sai oblong- 
obtuse, eight to twelve inches in length, and about two inches in breadth, leathery in 
texture, deep green on the upper side, paler beneath. Scape rising from a small 
pale green sheath, and bearing from three to six blooms; individual flowers 
upwards of seven inches in diameter. Sepals and petals spreading, the former lanceo- 
late in shape, the latter broader and more ovate-lanceolate, all white, broadly 
margined and flaked with pale purplish rose. Lip large, side lobes revolute over 
the column, white at the base and veined with purple, stained near the throat with 
a large crescent-shaped rich deep purple blotch; front lobe elongate, pale rosy 
purple, streaked with deep purple veins, and denticulate at the edge. : 
LALIA ELEGANS WoLsTENHOLMLE, Reichenbach fil., Gardeners’ Chromcle, 1865, 
p- 698; Warner’s Select Orchidaceous Plants, Il. t. xxix.; Williams’ Orchid- 
Grower's Manual, 6 ed., p. 358. 
This fine and very distinct variety of Lelia elegans was introduced into this 
country upwards of twenty years ago, and was originally imported amongst a con- 
signment of the typical plant. A magnificent illustration of this variety appeared 
in the second series of ‘“ Warner’s Select Orchidaceous Plants,” taken from a plant 
which bloomed at Enfield, in the collection of Mr. Marshall. It had, however, 
previously flowered in the fine collection of J. Day, Esq., at Tottenham, and was 
then named by Professor Reichenbach in honour of Mrs. Wolstenholm, a sister of 
Mr. Day. We have seen but few examples of this Orchid, and it still remains 
rare, always commanding a high price; as an instance of this, we may mention 
a plant of it recently sold at Mr. Lee’s sale, at Downside, which realised the sum 
of forty guineas. There are many forms of Lela elegans, which differ much in 
habit of growth as well as in the colour of their flowers, varying from pure white 
in the sepals and petals, with a richly coloured lip, to forms having sepals and 
petals of various shades of deep rose colour; but the variety now under con- 
sideration is abundantly distinct from all of them. Our artist was enabled to take 
his sketch of this beautiful variety through the kindness of F. G. Tautz, Esq., 
Goldhawk Road, Shepherd’s Bush, whose collection is famous for the numerous rare 
specimens and varieties it contains, and which are so exceedingly well eared for by 
Mr. Cowley. 
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