68 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [Marcu, 1906, 
CATTLEYA x FLAVEOLA 
Tue work of clearing up the history of some of the early Cattleyas is some- 
thing like competing in an obstacle race, so difficult is it to get at the facts. 
There are some curious hybrids, natural and artificial, grouping themselves 
round C. intermedia and C. guttata, which I have long been hoping to: 
clear up. One of these is C. X flaveola, Rchb. f. (Gard. Chron., 1882, ii. 
p- 596), which was suggested as derived from “ C. intermedia X guttata?” — 
and described as follows :— 
“Mr. F. Tautz, Studley House, 289, Goldhawk Road, London, W., 
kindly sent me the fine flower of this hybrid which, I am informed, was 
raised by Messrs. Backhouse, Holgate House, York. ‘he flower gave one 
at first the impression of a yellow Lelia elegans. It is equal to a middle- 
sized flower of that species, and has ligulate, rather acuminate sepals and 
petals, broader in the middle, all of a pale, clear yellow, coming very neat 
to the lightest sulphur colour. The lip has much the shape of that of a 
Cattleya guttata. The side laciniz are semicordate at the base, oblong, — 
prolonged into a long, semi-lanceblate apex equal to the narrow claw of the 
mid-lacinia, which extends into a ly oblong gi crenulate 
rugose mid-lacinia. The whole mid-lacinia is purple as on the tops of the 
white side laciniz, both inside and outside. The column is very plump, 
white, purple at the top. Cattleya x picturata, Rchb. f., may be compared 
to it from its origin, but it is widely distinct in its smaller blunt flowers and 
totally distinct lip. My typical specimen [of that] has thirteen flowers. 
It is also called ‘hybrida picta.’ Cattleya x flaveola is exceedingly 
elegant to my taste. It is also near Cattleya sextus, but that has much 
_ broader blunt acute sepals and petals.” 
No specimen or drawing being accessible, I was puzzled as to what it 
could be, and according to the record the natural hybrid C. x scita had # 
“similar parentage; and both should be forms of Mr. Dominy’s earliest 
Cattleya hybrid, C. x hybrida (O. R., v., p. 333). The discovery of an 
excellent painting of C. x scita in Mr. Day’s collection of Orchid drawings 
gave a new clue to the origin of that plant, namely, that it was 2 hybrid 
between C. intermedia and C. porphyrogl (O. R,, xi., p. 254), and Es 
now believe that C. x flaveola has the same origin. Both the colour of | 
the flower and the very characteristic shape of the lip, as above described, 
are completely in agreement, and this explains the marked differences from 
C. x hybrida. And I suspect the “ C. sextus” mentioned in the above not® 4 
ae ding of Reichenbach’s almost illegible handwriting of C. scit® 
At all events, I cannot find any further trace of the name. I also suspect , 
that C. x flaveola is a natural, not an artificial hybrid, unless Mess 
Backhouse can show evidence to the contrary. The idea that C- a ; 
