207) 
o8 
Cattleya maxima var. Hrubyana Lip. in Lindenia, I, p. 29, tab. 12 (1885). 
Var. $. gigantea. Pseudobulbi robusti, 40-50 cm. longi; pedunculus communis 8-ro-florus, interdum usque 
12-16-florus; flores ampli, pallide vel intense rosei; labellum intense purpureo reticulato-venosum, rarissime non 
venosuro. 
Cattleya maxima var. gigantea LIND. in Fourn. des Orchid., V, pp. 270 (1894), 340 et 390, VI, p. 308. 
Crescit in Ecuadore. 
Var. v. floribunda. Pseudobulbi robusti, 12-15 cm. longi; pedunculus communis 3-4 dm. longus, 12-21-florus, 
flores ampli, intense rosei; labellum margine valde crispum fere fimbriatum, purpureo-chermesinum, distincte venosum, 
albo-marginatum. 
Cattleya maxima var. floribunda L. Linp. in Fourn. des Orchid., VI, p. 217 (1895), in Lindenia, XI, p. 22. 
Cattleya floribunda Hort, Linp. in Fourn. des Orchid., V1, pp. 79, 100 et 115 (1895). 
a he first scientific indications concerning the Cattleya maxima are due 
ee BY i to Linptey, who gave a brief description of it in 1831 from a specimen 
Le gathered in Peru by the Spanish Botanists Ruiz and Pavon and that 
he had been able to examine in the Lambert Herbarium, one of the richest 
collections of the time. 
In the year 1842 the indications concerning the habitat of the Cattleya 
maxima, are more exact and precise; Hartwec collected it in the Equator in the 
immense forests that border Rio Grande, near Malacotes, between Loja and the 
Peruvian frontier; he sent several plants to the London Horticultural Society, 
and they flowered for the first time in 1844. The first figure was published 
by Linptey in 1846. However, it was only in 1855 when this magnificent species 
might be admired in several private collections, that it drew the full attention of 
the horticultural world. 
Until this time, we must say however that the rare specimens introduced 
were low-growing of scanty inflorescence, and the flowers of no particular 
beauty. In 1864, Mr. Linpen received from his collector, Gustave WALLIS, some 
tall-growing plants, free-flowering and which produced a splendid show of 
multi-color flowers. ° 
Unfortunately at that period, the cultivation of Orchids was not carried to 
the same perfection as at the present time, and these plants of which there 
were not many, all died within ten years. At length, in 1894 one of the collectors 
of the Horticurture INTERNATIONALE, Mr. Epwarp Kiasocn, sent a sufficient 
quantity of this tall-growing species, of which several varieties may be dis- 
tinguished, the characters of which are given on the preceding page. 
This superb variety to which the double annexed plate hardly does justice, 
on account of the beauty and force of its splendid inflorescence, was presented 
by the Horticutture INTERNATIONALE, at a Meeting of the OrcuipEENNE where 
it unanimously obtained a first-class Award of Merit. 
It is not unworthy of notice, that as Cattleya maxima flowers in autumn, 
this fact considerably increases the horticultural value of this species, and places 
it on a level with C. /abiata, another magnificent introduction also owing to 
the Horticutture INTERNATIONALE. A. CoaGnraux 
euUll 
