350 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [NOVEMBER, 1907. 
lip. Lastly comes a fine flower of Sophrocattleya Chamberlainii, ‘a rich 
rose-purple flower, with clear yellow lip, except the apex of the front lobe, 
which is purple-crimson. The flowers form a very beautiful series, and are 
excellent examples of good culture. 
pl Sa Gg 
ORCHID COLLECTING IN MEXICO. 
WHILE spending some days not long since in the city of Vera Cruz, 
and having a little time at my disposal, I made a short trip up the line 
of the Mexico and Vera Cruz Railway, alighting at the station of Paso del 
Macho, distant about two and a half hours’ run, and yet a number of 
leagues off the base of the Sierras—the object of the journey being to 
procure plants of Oncidium Cebolleta and Brassavola glauca. At the 
station of Paso del Macho I found, according to arrangement, my ever 
faithful old Antonio, and a tramp of two hours over the plains brought us to 
our hunting ground. Here, on scrubby bushes and arborescent shrubs, 
scantily clad with foliage, a good many nice plants of the Oncidium were 
found, though the immediate locality has been pretty well worked over. 
‘However, within two hours I succeeded in collecting a couple of a dozen or 
more good masses with six to eight pseudobulbs—one ought to say pseudo- 
bulbous leaves, as there is hardly any pseudobulb, the leaves being thick 
and cylindrical, and slightly channelled on the upper side. 
In slightly more shaded places, and on low trees well exposed to light 
and all the breezes that blow over the plains, a good lot of the Brassavola 
was soon found, and it was while searching for these that the rather 
surprising discovery of a few fairly good masses of Lelia anceps was made 
—surely far distant outliers of their natural habitat, since one does not 
think of looking for them much under 1200 métres above sea level, and 
‘quite into the heart of these coastal mountains, the elevation of the plains 
around the station already indicated being about 250 to 300 métres. This 
fact may not be generally known, and I allude to it for the purpose of show- 
ing that Lelia anceps will endure much more trying exposure to fierce 
‘heats and sunshine than is generally supposed, and I think of all the Mexican 
Lzlias is the species most likely to succeed in other tropical countries, 
where L. albida, Le autumnalis, and L. majalis would most likely fail. 
Here, in my district in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where the Vandas, such 
as V. Sanderiana, V. Hookeriana, and the Philippine Phalaenopsis are 
\perfectly at home, I have L. anceps doing finely, though it flowers here as 
-early as the last half of September, while L. albida and the others gradually 
fade away. As to the white forms of L. anceps, from the drier and cooler 
regions of the Oaxaca district, I cannot say, though the rare white forms 
from the coastal mountains of Vera Cruz in the Orizaba district do well 
enough here. 
