LAELIO-CATTLEYA. 449 



in which these characters are combined in the hybrid offspring. Some 

 of the pseudobulbs bear a single leaf, as in the Laelia parent, and others 

 a pair, as in the Cattleya ; while as regards their shape, they are inter- 

 mediate or incline towards one or the other parent. The same remark 

 applies to the flowers, both as regards shape and colour, while the 

 pollinia are very unequal, the lower series being much smaller than the 

 upper, and in some cases quite rudimentary, as in all the hybrids 

 artificially raised between these two genera. The series of natural 

 hybrids, now in gardens, have sometimes been referred to several 

 different types, as will be seen by the references cited below, and at 

 others brought together as varieties of one. It is, however, certain that 

 we have two distinct hybrids to deal with, both of which are as variable 

 as hybrids generally are. One is the hybrid between Laelia piirfurata 

 and Cattleya Leopoldi or Laelio-Gattleya x elegans proper, the other that 

 between Laelia pwrpurata and Cattleya intermedia, or Laelio-Oattleya X 

 Sehilleriana, sometimes incorrectly referred as a variety of the former. 

 It is not desirable, however, that hybrids of different parentage should 

 be confused together. We may first note Laelio-Cattleya x elegans, 

 otherwise Laelia x purpurata Leopoldi. This was originally discovered 

 by Pranpois De Vos, a collector for the late M. Ambrose Verschaffelt, 

 of Ghent, on the Island of Santa Catherina, as long ago as in 1847, and 

 flowered for the first time in Europe in the following year, when it was 

 described as Cattleya elegans. Its hybrid origin was not then suspected, 

 indeed neither of its parents were then known, which seems rather 

 curious. This original form had the sepals and petals light rosy purple, 

 except at the base and along the centre, which parts were light green, 

 and the lip strongly three-lobed, the front lobe very broad, and together 

 with the tips of the side lobes, deep violet-purple, the remainder being 

 nearly white. This original form was afterwards called variety 

 Morreniana. Eound this original type the different varieties group 

 themselves, diverging more or less in various directions. The variety 

 Tautziana is near to the original type, and differs chiefly in the 

 possession of a yellow stain on either side of the throat. Bluntii has 

 rather darker colours, and the front lobe of the lip is more elongated. 

 Bayana again differs in having the throat of the lip orange-yellow, like 

 some forms of Laelia purpurata. The one called prasiata has the disk of 

 the sepals green, and the throat sulphur-yellow, though in other respects 



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