﻿266 



THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



name of Cattleya lobata (Gard. Chron., 1848, p. 403), from a plant which 

 flowered with Messrs. Loddiges in the previous year, and which they had 

 received from Brazil. In 1854 Reichenbach described a Lselia grandis van 

 purpurea, from a plant which flowered in the collection of Messrs. Booth 

 & Sons, of Hamburg {Bonplandia, 1854, p. 89), and in the following year, 

 being convinced of its distinctness, he renamed it Lselia Boothiana, in 

 compliment to its introducor (A llg. Gartenz., 1855, p. 322). He afterwards 

 discovered that Lindley's Cattleya lobata was identical, and figured the 

 species in his Xenia Orchidacea (i, p. 218, t. 91), when he stated that it had 

 been " long years " in Messrs. Booth's establishment, and had acquired the 

 name of "the Cattleya that never flowers." The species has also another 

 name, having been described and figured by Carriere as Laelia Rivieri (Rev. 

 Hort. 1874, p. 331). This is said to have been sent with others from New 

 Grenada to M. Rougier-Chauviere, of Paris, with whom it flowered in May, 

 1874. The locality, however, is believed to be erroneous. 



Messrs. Veitch, who call the plant Lselia lobata, state that they know 

 of only one station for it " on the coast of Rio de Janeiro, where it grows 

 high up on a bare rock that is washed by the ocean below, and where it is 

 fully exposed to the sun from morning till night, a fact of which cultivators 

 should take note, the more especially as the species, although growing 

 vigorously under the usual cultural treatment of Cattleyas and Lselias* 

 often fails to flower " (Man. Orch., ii., p. 74). 



That it is a shy bloomer seems to be the experience of nearly everyone 

 who has grown it. Mr. Day remarked :— " I have had this plant four 

 years, and it has not bloomed until now, but there are seven spikes this 

 year. It seems to bloom when the growths get to the edge of the pot. In 

 1863, after flowering, I repotted this plant, and it never bloomed again 

 until this summer, when the growths had reached the edge again." We 

 remember another record somewhere that the plant flowers most freely 

 when pot-bound, and from the facts mentioned we should infer that the 

 plant should be placed in a light position, and be disturbed as little as 

 possible at the root. The flowering season is generally May and June. 



"A big Calceolaria."— Prof. Boulger's Lecture on the "Preservation 

 of Wild Flowers " at the last R.H.S. meeting, and the mention of 

 Cypripedium Calceolus as one of the handsome British species which has 

 been nearly exterminated, reminds us of a rather good story which we have 

 heard, and which is stated to be perfectly authentic- The plant formerly 

 grew in Yorkshire, if it does not still exist there, and some native, whose 

 botanical knowledge was evidently not extensive, found a clump of it, and 

 dug it up and sold it to some local gardener or nurseryman for half-a-crown 

 as " a big Calceolaria." 



