274 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
tion for our present issue, though we should be glad to know if this is another 
seedling from the same batch, or if the colour was undeveloped at the first 
time of flowering. It is certainly a very handsome hybrid of a brilliant 
shade of colour, and we should not have expected so good a result from a 
cross between such closely allied species. ‘The dwarfed habit is an improve- 
ment. The photograph was kindly sent by Mr. Winn. 
SOBRALIA SESSILIS AND S. DECORA. 
Some time ago I had occasion to look up the history of these two dwarf 
species, which have been very much confused, and as both are in cultivation 
the following information may be acceptable. S. sessilis, Lindl., flowered 
with Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, in December, 1840, the plants having 
been sent from Demarara by Mr. Schomburgk. It was described and 
figured in the following year, and is interesting as the first Sobralia which 
flowered in European gardens. Soon afterwards another species, which 
had been sent from Guatemala by Mr. Skinner, flowered in the collection of 
James Bateman, Esq., at Knypersley, and was described as S. decora, 
Batem. The latter was figured in the Botanical Magazine, in 1851, as S. 
sessilis, and although the mistake was subsequently pointed out, the 
erroneous name seems to have survived to the present day. S. Galeottiana, 
A. Rich., based on a specimen collected near Oaxaca, South Mexico, by 
Galeotti, also belongs to the same species, although Lindley keeps it 
separate, and adds to it a specimen collected in British Guiana by Schom- 
burgk, which is only another variation of the confusion, for the latter really 
belongs to S. sessilis, and thus S. Galeottiana disappears altogether. The 
true S. sessilis has now re-appeared in cultivation, having been received 
from British Guiana, by Sir John Kirk, of Wavertree, Sevenoaks, who 
presented it to Kew, where it has recently flowered. It has rosy flowers, 
and the sheaths of the leaves are covered with numerous blackish purple 
hairs, A plant recently imported from Brazil, by Messrs. F. Sander and 
Co., St. Albans, probably belongs to the same species. S. decora has nearly 
white sepals and petals with a little pink on the lip, while the sheaths of 
the leaves are nearly smooth. Notwithstanding the way in which they have 
been confused they are really very distinct when seen side by side in a 
living state. The following is the amended synonymy of the two species :— 
S. sessilis, Lind/. Bot. Reg., xxvii. Misc., p. 3, t. 17; Lindl. Fol. Orch., Sobral., p. Fe 
S. Galeottiana, Zind/. Fol. Orch., Sobral., p. 7, in part (not of A. Rich.). 
S. decora, Batem. Orch. Mex. and Guat.,t. 26; Lindl. Fol. Orch., Sobral., p.7; Rehb. 
ae Xen. Orch. I. P- 77, t. 30, fig. 2. S. Galeottiana, A. Rich., in Ann, Sc. Nat., sér. 3, iil. p. 
deta ol. Orch., Sobral., P- 75 in part. S. sessilis, Hook. Bot. Mag., t. 4570 (not of 
R. A. RoiFe. 
