264 FLORA AND SYLVA. 



L^ELIO - CATTLEYA x IMPERA- 

 TRICE DE RUSSIE [Cattleya Men- 

 delii^. Lcelia Digbyana)/'" 

 This beautiful plant was first exhibited 

 before the Orchid Committee of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society in 1899, 

 and was awarded a first-class certificate. 

 It was raised by Monsieur Maron, in 

 France, and flowered with him just ten 

 years later than Veitch's Lcelio- Cattleya 

 x Digbyano-Mossice, thefirstof the Lce- 

 lia - Digbyana hybrids. Both of these 

 fine plants were honoured by first-class 

 awards on their appearance, and al- 

 though upwards of twenty Lcelia Dig- 

 byano crosses have since flowered in 

 Europe, these two kinds are still among 

 the best of their class. The subject of 

 our plate has large white blossoms which 

 are heavily and exquisitely fringed, the 

 whole of the flower delicately tinged 

 with a suffusion ofrose-pink,and though 

 this colouring is typical, varieties differ 

 slightly, and there are now many varie- 

 ties, such as those of Hessle,Tring Park, 

 Veitch's, and others. A complete list of 

 the hybrids of Lcelia Digbya?ia is given 

 at the end of these notes, from which it 

 will be seen that there are none in which 

 L. Digbyana has been the seed-bearer. 

 We believe that some of our best growers 

 are now tending seedlings that have this 

 plant as a mother, but up to the present 

 no hybrid has flowered in which it was 

 certain that this Honduras Laelia bore 

 theseed. Yet in its native homeamid the 

 damp shady forests it must seed freely, 

 for the writer has gathered from im- 

 ported plants well developed capsules 

 that had evidently contained good seed. 



There is an unusual distance between 

 the stigma and the ovary in this Orchid ; 

 in fact, the long tube or beak forming 

 the upper part of the capsule is three 

 times the length of that containing the 

 seed, hence there is probably an exhaus- 

 tive effect on the pollen while passing 

 down this long tube, making a large 

 quantity necessary to perfect fertiliza- 

 tion. Another unusual feature is that 

 the stigma contains three distinct cavi- 

 ties. Growers are anxiously waiting to 

 see a hybrid from the seed of Lcelia 

 Digbyana, for it seems certain that so 

 remarkable a plant will convey to its 

 offspring characters very different from 

 those of the more remote pollen-influ- 

 ence. So far as my experience goes, the 

 seed-bearer in plants and the female in 

 animals usually exercise the strongest 

 influence upon offspring, the mother's 

 own traits of character and degrees of 

 beauty and development being repro- 

 duced in a way that is far more marked 

 than those of the male parent. Accord- 

 ing to this rule we may look for great 

 things from these unflowered crosses. 



This fine Orchid thrives 

 in the Cattleya house, 

 potted either in Belgian leaf-mould, 

 polypodium fibre, or a mixture of peat 

 and moss. It is not difficult to grow, 

 and needs a thorough rest when growth 

 is completed. While growing it revels 

 in heat and moisture, pure fresh air, 

 and plenty of soft water. The male 

 parent [Lcelia Digbyana) makes its 

 growth in our winter, flowering in early 

 spring upon the nearly completed young 

 growths. The female parent [Cattleya 



* From a drawing by H. G- Moon at " The Woodlands " (R. H. Measures, Esq.), Streatham. 



