THE ORCHID REVIEW. 329 
: CATTLEYA LABIATA. 
Our collections are now gay with the flowers of this beautiful plant, and it 
is interesting to observe what a range of variation it presents. The lighter 
varieties seem to be the most common, but there are also many dark forms 
which are very richly coloured. Albino forms are apparently very rare. 
Probably the best yet known is the variety alba, which appeared both in the 
collection of M. G. Warocque, of Mariemont, and in that of M. Wells, Esq., 
of Broomfield, Sale, near Manchester. The flowers are pure white, with a 
lemon-coloured disc. The one called elegans, which appeared in the collec- 
tion of T. R. Watt, Esq., of The Briars, Chislehurst, is also very handsome. 
The sepals and petals are white, but the colour of the lip is nearly typical, 
and the contrast is very effective. A third, called gloriosa, has the flowers 
of a very light blush, with a purple-crimson blotch in front of the yellow 
disc. Of the coloured forms quite a series of variations could be picked out. 
Its re-introduction is the most important event of recent years. 
A correspondent raises the question whether this plant ever really 
grew near Rio, as reported, and whether Swainson’s plant did not come 
from the same region as those recently introduced. This is not a new idea, 
but the doubts expressed in the matter have no foundation in fact, as there 
are records which prove that down to the year 1836 it grew near to Rio, and 
as Swainson’s collections were made in the neighbourhood of that city, it is 
evident that the plants sent home by him some eighteen years before were 
from this district. 
It was originally sent by Swainson to the late Mr. William Cattley, of 
Barnet, in or before 1818, and flowered for the first time in Europe in 
November of that year. Mr. Cattley states :— 
_ The most splendid perhaps of all orchideous plants, which blossomed for the first 
time in the stove of my garden in Suffolk, during 1818, the plant having been sent to me 
by Mr. William Swainson during his visit to Brazil (Hook. Exot. FI. ii. t. 157). 
As it proved to belong to a new genus, it was dedicated by Lindley to 
Mr. Cattley, under the name of Cattleya labiata. In 1819 it flowered in the 
Glasgow Botanic Garden, and subsequently in other collections. Two or 
three figures were soon published, but no one seems to have stated the 
€xact spot where Swainson got it. 
Gardner, however, supplied some very exact informatio 
habitat of the plant. He first set foot in Brazil on July 23; 
Janeiro, and soon afterwards made a series of excursions in 
hood, in which he met with this handsome plant, and records as 
his Travels in the Interior of Brazil, ed. 2:— 
n respecting the 
1836, at Rio de 
the neighbour- 
follows, in 
rises the Gavea, Or Topsail 
_ Near th i i the city, 
€ sea, and about 15 miles distant from y English sailors by a abese 
Mountain, so called from its square shape, and well.known to 
