74 



an earlier asparagus, which would be cultivated on your highter alti- 

 tudes and brought to great perfection With faster steamers we think 

 that strawberries could also be brought here to advantage. 



We remain, Sir, 



Yours faithfully, 



Gillespie Bros & Co. 



To His Excellency Sir Henry A. Blake, 

 Governor of Jamaica, &c. 



AN ORCHID FROM CAYMAN ISLANDS. 



Schomburgkia Thomsoniana, Reichenb. f. 



Tn Yeitch's Manual of Orchidaceous Plants, Part II, published in the 

 latter part of 1887, the following notice of this plant occurs : — 



" Flowers only seen by us. Pseudo-bulbs, leaves, and inflorescence 

 as in S. tibicinis, but smaller. Sepals and petals linear-oblong, 1J 

 inches long, the petals a little narrower than the sepals, cream -white at 

 the base, passing to buff -yellow at the apex, the sepals- simply undulate, 

 the petals crisped. Lip three-loped, the side lopes triangular, rolled 

 over the column, white on the exposed side ; the middle lope oblong, 

 emarginate, much crisped, deep maroon -purple, disc yellow, traversed 

 by five raised lines which extend to the base of the lip, and of which 

 the two outside ones are the broadest, in the central area between the 

 side lopes, these raised lines are deep purple, and from which on either 

 side are numerous oblique purple streaks. Column triquetral, bent, 

 bidentate at apex, pale green. 



" Schomburgkia Thomsoniana, Rchb. in Gard. Chron. II. s. 3. (1887) 

 p. 38. 



'' A species new to science and to horticulture that has recently 

 flowered in the collection of Mr. W. J. Thomson, at St Helen's Lan- 

 cashire. Nothing is recorded of its origin." 



The habitat was not known until May, 1888, when I brought it from 

 the Cayman Islands. My specimens were named at Kew, and a note 

 inserted in the Kew Bulletin for July, 1888, p. 162. 



Dr. Strachan visited these Islands in 1892, and noted two varieties, 

 of which only one grew in Cayman Brae. He has been good enough 

 to contribute the following paragraphs :— 



" S. Thomsoniana, var. albo-parpur-a. Flower larger, colour cream 

 or white and purple, lip with throat deep purple and tip but little re- 

 curved. 



& Thotnsoniona, var. minor. Flower smaller, colour canary-yellow 

 and purple, lip without much purple in throat, and tip extremely re- 

 curved. 



" Var. minor was the only one I collected in Cayman Brae, but in 

 Grrand Cayman I found both varieties, and var. albo-purpurea was in 

 greater abundance than minor. In habit and general structure the 

 varieties show no marked difference. 



Henry Strachan, F.L.S." 



Mr. Ptolfe writes from Kew Gardens that the specimens sent by me 

 to Kew from Grand Cayman and Cayman Brae are " practically uni- 



