326 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
Geraes, and living plants have recently been sent by M. Binot, of Petropolis, 
Brazil, to M. A. A. Peeters, of Brussels, with whom they flowered in January, 
1898. It is figured in the Dictionnaire des Orchidées. It has much of the 
general appearance of S. grandiflora, but differs in having light yellow 
flowers striped with orange, and, it is said, in having the little, scale-like 
callus at the base of the lip bilobed instead of entire. ; | 
There is one other species not yet introduced to cultivation, namely S. 
Wittigiana (Rodr. Gen. et Sp. Orch. Nov., ii., p. 159). It has the general habit 
of the preceding, and the flower is very similar in shape, but the colour is a 
peculiar lilac-purple, and the flower peduncles are about three to four inches . 
long, giving it a very distinct appearance. It would be interesting to see it 
introduced to cultivation. 
S. grandiflora is one of the most beautiful Orchids in cultivation, and its 
popularity may be judged from the fact that upwards of twenty figures of it 
have been published. Warner remarks :—‘‘ This lovely Orchid may be 
described as an epitome of beauty. Its habit of growth is unsurpassed for 
neatness in the whole tribe of epiphytes, and its tufted masses of solid- 
looking, dark green leaves form an admirable relief to the comparatively 
enormous blossoms, which are moreover of the richest colour.” It is also 
of the easiest possible culture if properly treated in a Cool house, though for 
many years after its introduction it was regarded as a very capricious plant, 
because wrongly treated. Its history was given by Mr. J. O’Brien in the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle, in 1884, in an interesting note :— 
“‘ Collected and sent home alive to this country for the first time by 
Mr. Gardner, in 1837, not even his description of the high altitude in the 
Organ Mountains of Brazil (7,000 to 8,000 ft., near Rio Janeiro), could save 
it from being always designated a stove epiphyte. . . . . No more 
misleading description could be given of the plant, nor one likely to be more 
fatal to the production of its beautiful flowers. In the early years of its 
attempted cultivation in this country the fresh imported plants were 
frequently heard of as flowering here and there, and were always admired, 
but it soon got found out that the greater part of the plants quickly died out, 
and at last the imported plants were received by many in the full belief 
that they must necessarily die out, too, in a short time. That the cause of 
this great mortality among them arose from their being grown in hot houses 
is proved by the fact that during all the time that such quantities were 
being lost in heat, a few were being cultivated very successfully in cold 
houses ; for example, Mr. Sillem, of Laurie Park, has in his possession 
now a grand specimen which sprung from a very tiny plant received over 
twenty years ago, and which has been grown ever since as a cold green 
house plant. Not before it got genera!ly known that S. granditlora grew 
best in a cold house did the plant get really at home in this country.” 
