CATTLEYA (LABIATA) LUEDDEMANNIANA ALBA Hort. 



CATTLEVA (labiata) LUEDDEMANNIANA, Rchb. f. ; pseudobulbis fusiformibus subcompressis monophyllis, foliis lineari-oblongis obtusis conaceis, 

 spatha lineari-oblonga simplici, floribus speciosis rubro-purpureis, sepalis lineari-oblongis obtusis v. apiculatis, petalis late rhomboideis obtusis undulatis, labello 

 oblongo plus duplo longiori quam lato, basi cuneato involuto apice expanso bilobo undulato, disco lxvi, columna clavata. 



CATTLEYA (labiata) Lueddkmanmana, Rchb. f. Xen. Orch., I., p. 29. 



Cattleya speciosissima, Hort., Gard. Chron., 1868, p. 404. 



CATTLEYA DAWSONI, Warn. Scl. Orch., I., t. 16. 



Cattleya labiata yak. Lueddkmanmana, Vcitch Man. Orch., II., p. 19. 



Var. alba, floribus albis labelli disco lutco. 



Cattlkya Lukddkmanniana akka, Hort., Orchidophilc, 1886, p. 365. 



This beautiful Cattleya is an albino of C. Lueddemanniana, one of the most distinct of the labiata group, which is frequently cultivated in gardens 

 under its later name of C. speciosissima. Cattleya Lueddemanniana is one of the older forms, as it was described about 1854, when it flowered in the cele- 

 brated collection of M. Pescatore, of St. Cloud, near Paris, where it is said to have been received under the name of C. maxima. It was named in honour of 

 M. Pescatore's gardener, one of the most skilful cultivators of orchids of his time. For a long period very little more was known about it, and the name seems 

 to have been almost lost sight of. It is believed to have first appeared in England in the collection of the late Mr. Dawson, of Meadow Bank, near Glasgow, 

 prior to 1863, where it was cultivated under the name of C. Dawsoni. Although found in other collections, nothing appears to have been known about its 

 origin until Messrs. Hugh Low & Co., of Clapton, imported it from Venezuela, where it is said to grow on the Cordillera, near the coast, some distance east- 

 ward from Caracas, and at a lower elevation than C. Mossiae. It is readily distinguished from all its allies by its comparatively longer and narrower lip, which 

 is distinctly narrowed at the extreme base. Its flowering season is generally during the months of September and October, about midway between that of C 

 Gaskclliana and C. labiata. The variety alba appeared in the collection of M. F. Finet, of Argcnteuil, France, from an importation of M. Godefroy Lcbceuf 

 about 1883. It is a chaste and exceedingly beautiful variety of the purest white, with the exception of the disc, which is light yellow. R. A. Rolfe. 



A white form of Cattleya labiata is enough to excite the imagination of the most prosaic of orchid growers, and a glance 

 at our coloured plate will show that a little enthusiasm will not be thrown away on such a rare and lovely variety. A 

 Cattleya coloured like Ccelogyne cristata would be welcome in any collection, quite irrespective of its name. In this case, 

 however, the name reminds us of one of the earliest and most successful of the early French orchid growers, M. 

 Liiddemann, a dear friend and adviser of ours, who years ago had charge of the late M. Pescatore's then unrivalled collec- 

 tion of orchids at St. Cloud. 



Beautiful as are the now numerous varieties of C. Lueddemanniana, they require rather a special course of culture 

 in order to bloom them regularly and successfully. Coming as they do from near the coast, and at a lower and warmer 

 elevation than C. Mossiae, it follows that they require a drier and more sunny and airy position in our orchid houses, and 

 a more decided period of rest. When growth starts away it is not easy to give them too much light and heat— like 

 Dendrobium Cambridgeanum, for example. The young growth needs all the impetus that warmth and moisture at the 

 root can give in order to facilitate the rapid plumping up of the young growths and their simultaneous flowering, for as 

 the late Mr. Day, of Tottenham, long ago told us, if they do not flower at once on the growth being made, they do not 

 do so until the development of the next in succession. 



Apart from the variety alba we now illustrate, there is another superb form of this plant, Cattleya Lueddemanniana 

 Schroderiana, having white sepals and petals and a white lip, on the centre of which is an orange-yellow disc mark, 

 which is prolonged to its base ; the lower half of lip is blotched and striped with deep rosy-lilac. This plant was 

 imported by us and exhibited at the Orchid Conference in May, 1885, when it received a First-class Certificate and was 

 much admired. Both varieties are exquisitely lovely, and to grow and bloom them well, and with regularity, is by no 

 means a bad test of an orchid grower's ability. 



Our plate was taken from a plant in the collection of W. R. Lee, Esq., of Audenshaw, near Manchester, who 

 obtained a First-class Certificate before the Royal Horticultural Society, September 6, 1892. 



