CHYSIS LAEVIS. 
[PLate 482.] 
Native of Mexico. 
Epiphytal. Psewdobulbs fusiform, slender, some twelve or fifteen inches _ long, 
bearing numerous leaves, the most of which are very fugacious; the permanent 
leaves are ovate-lanceolate, much plaited, and rich green. Racemes arising with 
the young growth, pendent, bearing from six to twelve flowers, which are thick 
and waxy in texture, spreading, yellow passing into orange, profusely spotted and 
blotched with crimson; dorsal sepal oblong, slightly inflexed, the lateral ones larger, 
falcate ; petals faleate, all similar in colour; lip three-lobed, the lateral lobes rolled 
over the column, pale yellow dotted with crimson, front lobe somewhat orbicular, 
undulated at the edges, rich yellow, more or less spotted and streaked with crimson 
having fine raised fleshy white ridges along the disk. Colwmn deeply hollowed near 
the base, yellow dotted with reddish brown. 
Cuysis LaEvis, Lindley, -Botanical Register, 1840, miscell. 61. Bateman, 
Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, t. 31. Reichenbach Jil, Walper’s Annales 
Botanices Systematicae, vi., 492.  L’Illustration HHorticole, x., t. 365. Warner's 
Select Orchidaceous Plants, ii., t. 14. Wilhams’ Orchid Grower’s Manual, 6th 
edition, p. 211. 
a 
We have in the form here represented a remarkably fine variety of a very charming 
species. The plant originally flowered in the garden of Mr. Barker, of Springfield, 
Birmingham, some fifty years ago, that gentleman having introduced it from Mexico 
along with Chysis bractescens, a white-flowered species which was figured in Vol. x., 
Pl. 446, of this work. The plant there referred to is a spring bloomer, whilst 
the one now under consideration does not flower until the months of June and 
July, so that it may very justly be called a summer bloomer. It is much to be 
regretted that it still remains so scarce in our collections. We have seen another 
species frequently passed off for this plant (C. maculata), but as this has 
the power of self fertilisation, its flowers do not afford the grower much satisfaction. 
The plant here figured flowered in our establishment during the past summer, 
and was sketched by our artist, Miss Gertrude Hamilton, at our request, as it was 
such a fine-coloured variety. 
Chysis laevis is, like all the other species and varieties of the genus, a deciduous 
plant, losing its leaves soon after it has ripened up its growth, when it may be 
kept cool and dry, giving it only just sufficient water to keep the bulbs plump 
and prevent them from shrivelling until the return of spring. As this Species does 
not usually flower until C. bractescens and its congeners are over, it should be kept 
