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XXIX. Note upon Cattleya guttata. By John Lindley, 

 Ph. D., F. R. S., $c, Assistant Secretary. 



Read April 18, 1837. 



There is perhaps no genus of Orchidaceous Epiphytes yet in our 

 gardens such a general favourite as Cattleya, a circumstance which 

 is to be ascribed in part to the great beauty of such species as C. 

 labiata, Loddigesii, and crispa, and doubtless also in part to the 

 readiness with which they adapt themselves to the artificial state 

 of life under which they are necessarily preserved in our hothouses. 



There is, however, a great difference in the degree of success 

 with which these plants are managed even by excellent cultivators ; 

 for if we see C. labiata and crispa with two or three flowers in a 

 cluster, so also do we see them with a larger number ; C. crispa, 

 in particular, has been grown with seven flowers, by Mr. Paxton, 

 gardener to His Grace the Duke of Devonshire : thus forming a 

 spectacle of almost unrivalled beauty. The most striking instance 

 of remarkable success in this matter that has come to my know- 

 ledge is in the case of a plant of C. guttata, flowered in the hot- 

 house of Richard Harrison, Esq., of Aighburgh, near Liverpool, 

 and by him exhibited at the meeting of this Society, on the 6th of 

 December last, when the silver Knightian medal was awarded it. 



C. guttata is a native of the woods about Rio Janeiro. It was 

 originally sent to this Society by the Right Honourable Sir Robert 

 Gordon, and has recently been met with by Mr. Gardner in 

 abundance on trees and rocks in the same country. 



It usually produces two or three yellowish green flowers, richly 

 spotted with crimson, which is its condition in a wild state ; occa- 



