﻿September, 1904.] 



THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



L^LIA BOOTHIAN A. 



The annexed figure represents a well-known but not very commonly culti- 

 vated plant, which has the character of being a rather shy bloomer, namely 

 Laelia Boothiana. The photograph shows a five-flowered inflorescence, 

 and is sent by Dr. A. W. Hoisholt, Stockton, California. Dr. Hoisholt 

 writes : — " I had had the plant about ten years without being able to make 

 it flower, and had been growing it in a house with Phaloenopsis and 

 Australian Dendrobiums. Last year I moved a piece of the original plant, 

 which during the past ten years had increased from one lead to fourteen 



Fig. 40. L/Elia Boothiana. 



leads, to the Cattleya house, where the plant received more light (southern 

 exposure) and ventilation. The result this spring was a spike of five 

 flowers from the main lead, and one of three from a side lead, this having 

 no sheath. The bulb with the larger spike measured 2 1-8 inches across its 

 broadest diameter, and the length of the leaf and bulb was 25 inches. It 

 has been grown in fern-root fibre." 



The species has been known for upwards of half a century, having 

 been originally described and figured by Dr. Lindley in 1847, under the 



