ORCHIDACEOUS PLANTS. 309 
of a delicate white with a blotch of yellow on the lip, each flower 
‘being three or four inches wide. 
The Carriryas are, however, the most striking of all the 
Orchids. Their dark evergreen foliage and compact habit recom- 
mend them especially to the cultivator. The flowers are large, 
elegant in form, and their prevailing colours, of violet, rose, crimson, 
and purple, are unsurpassed for depth and brilliancy. C. granulosa, 
from Brazil, produces large olive-coloured flowers, with rich brown 
spots ; the lip whitish, spotted with crimson in C. guttata. Leopoldit, 
another Brazilian species, grows about twenty inches high with a 
dark green foliage. The sepals and petals are dark brown spotted 
with crimson, and purple lip. Others are rose-coloured, margined 
with white, or sepals and petals pure white, with beautifully fringed 
lip of richest crimson. 
The Lzx1as rival, while they resemble the Cattleyas; they are 
compact in growth, with evergreen foliage, producing their flowers . 
in spikes from the top of the bulbs. In L. acuminata, from Mexico, 
the sepals and petals are white, and lip white with a dark blotch 
on the upper lip. In L. anceps the sepals and petals are rose lilae, 
and lip a beautiful purple, the flowers being three or four inches — ” 
across; others purple, with a crimson lip, or delicate rose-colour, 
the lip striped and shotted chocolate brown, with flowers four inches 
_4cross, as in L. megalis. In short, so far as graceful foliage, 
brilliancy of colouring, form and size of flowers are concerned, the 
Orchids of this division are the gems of the Vegetable World. 
The Vanpex include many of the most curious and interesting 
among Orchids, chiefly Epiphytes. 
The Aerides combine with their rich, evergreen, and gracefully 
curving stem and opposite leaves, flowers of peculiar elegance, pro- 
_ Ceding from the axils of the leaves, apd extending their rich and 
waxy petals in delicate racemes sometimes two feet in length, 
and yielding a most agreeable fragrance. The Acrides are natives — 
of the hottest parts of India and other tropical countries, attaching — 
themselves to trees, generally such as overhang running streams 
: : (Of water. 4. affine throws out its pink and white flowers in long 
2S branching spikes two feetlong. A. enspwm, another Indian species, 
ea ‘purple-coloured stem and dark green foliage, throws out long __ 
Spikes of flowers of pure white tipped with pink. The Saccolabiums 
