232 THE ORCHID REVIEW. (Aucust, 1915. 
in having a history as well as a name—in fact many names, the native one 
being Itzumaqua ; besides which it had two or three Spanish, and three or 
four Latin names. It was all very well for old Rumphius to say that 
Orchids are the aristocrats of the vegetable kingdom, but not one in a 
hundred of them had ever been heard of before the present century, and in 
classical or heroic ages they were unknown. No one, not even the 
Chairman, had ever found a fossil Orchid. Any Orchid, then, whose 
history could be traced back to the conquest of America would hold a 
distinguished place. ; 
It had been said that when the French took possession of a settlement 
the first thing they did was to establish a café, just as in a like manner the 
Spaniards where in the custom of erecting a church. For the elaborate 
services of these churches the Spaniards, being ignorant of the resources of 
their new possessions, at first carried with them their old world flowers; 
but they soon discovered the value of Orchids for church decoration. In 
connection with this part of his ‘subject he might mention that his late 
friend, Mr. Skinner, had sent home from Guatemala some bulbs, which 
proved to be no other than the common white lily, which had doubtless: 
been taken out for the very purpose, and had run wild. The value of 
Orchids for church decoration having been discovered, they were largely 
employed for the purpose, and the names of the saints’ days, and festivals 
for which their flowering season suited, were applied to them, and of these 
Mr. Bateman cited a number, of which “Flore de Maio” was one. 
Knowing the extensive use of Orchids in church decoration, Mr. Skinner, 
when he wanted to know what Orchids grew in a district, always went to 
the church to look at the altar decorations. | Bi: 
To proceed with the history of Lelia majalis, the first naturalist who 
went to Mexico was Hernandez, who published, in 1648, at Rome, a book, 
in the frontispiece of which two Orchids were represented, one of which was 
the beautiful Laelia majalis. Humboldt was the next to notice it, under 
the name of Bletia speciosa, as one of those beautiful Orchids, the 
recollection of which, as he was once assured by that illustrious traveller 
himself, no time could efface. About the same time Lexarza, who went out 
to Valladolid, in the province of Mechoacan, failing to recognise the plant 
as described by Humboldt, called it Bletia grandiflora. His discription of 
this and other Orchids so impressed the youthful Reichenbach _that he 
wanted to visit Mexico himself; but this proved unnecessary, for Mr. 
Barker dispatched a traveller thither, who sent a number of plants of the 
Lelia, which, arriving in mid-winter, were sent home in blankets, but none 
of them ever flowered, and the whole of them disappeared in a year or two. 
Next, M. Deschamps, in 1837, brought home a cart-load, for which he at 
first asked enormous prices, but eventually he was glad to sell the plants 
