ig 
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8 
beautiful and fragrant plant has numerous varieties of colours on different plants, 
varying from pure white to crimson and even purple. ” Thus we have evidence 
that the species is both variable and widely diffused. 
We have seen that the white form was introduced and flowered in this 
country as long ago as 1847, and it may be added that what in all probability 
was the violet one flowered ad Kew in 1864. Neither of them, however, ever 
appear to have been common in gardens. 
The annexed plate was prepared from a plant which flowered with Messrs 
LinvEN, L’HorticuLture INTERNATIONALE, Brussels, during last summer. So far 
as I can ascertain, it belongs to the same species, and is the first figure of the 
species which has appeared. 
The Sobralias are the glory of tropical America, as various travellers have 
observed, though owing to their fugitive flowers, and the large size of many of 
the species, they have not been so popular as many other genera. In their native 
homes, where they grow in masses like reeds, producing flowers which rival 
the Cattleyas in brilliancy of colour, they must form a gorgeous spectacle, and 
even in our hothouses some of them are exceedingly ornamental and floriferous. 
R.A. ROLPe. 
