LAELIO-CATTLEYA BLESENSIS. 
[Prate 519}. 
Garden Hybrid. 
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs fusiform, from five to twelve inches or more high, 
one or two-leaved, light green, covered mostly by silvery grey sheathing scales. 
Leaves dark green, leathery, elliptic-oblong, blunt, keeled at the back, Scape 
producing from two to five handsome flowers. Sepals obovate-lanceolate, acuminate 
or acute two inches long, half an inch broad, of a delicate rosy magenta hue, 
veined longitudinally with: faint magenta-purple; petals obovate or elliptic-obovate, 
acute, slightly reflexed at the tips, nearly an inch broad, rosy magenta, faintly feathered 
at the margins and veined in the middle with delicate purplish magenta; lp three- 
lobed, lateral lobes rolled over the column, meeting at the edges, thus forming a 
funnel, pure white inside, faintly tinged with purplish rose at the margin, white flushed 
with pale rose towards the. margins, the free portion of the margins (ze, that 
surrounding the throat) prettily crisped and undulated, and usually bordered with 
purple-magenta; mid-lobe of the richest purple-magenta, veined from the middle of 
the throat outward with even deeper and richer purple. Column white, strongly 
veined and marked with rosy purple; pollen masses four in number. 
Hyprip Carrieya (pumira x Loppicest), L’Orchidophile, 1890, p. 289. 
Carrteya Buxsensis, Hort. Gall. Revue Horticole, 1893, p. 424 (with plate). 
Williams’ Orchid-Grower’s Manual, 7th ed., p. 154. 
$$$ 
With the exception of Cypripedium, a greater number of hybrids of Laelia 
and Cattleya have been produced than in any other genus of Orchidaceous plants ; 
and the reason is not far to seek, for, apart from the number of species as a 
basis of operation, the gaudy and attractive appearance of most of them, and the 
readiness with which the two genera were found to intercross, were ample 
inducements for the hybridiser. In spite of the countless number of successful 
‘Tosses—a great many of which, however, will doubtless be eliminated in course of 
time—there is still ample room for good forms, and any hybrid which shall 
combine the characters of two distinct types, themselves in favour on account of 
beauty in form and colour, will always be welcomed by every lover of this group 
of plants; and such a one we do not hesitate to pronounce the present subject. 
Mr. Charles Maron, who raised this gem while in charge of the gardens of 
M. Darblay, at Corbeil, near Paris, states that the seed was sown in February, 1887, 
while the first flowers expanded in October, 1890; these, however, fell far short 
of the beauty they attained later, when the plants became stronger. 
