54 



CATTLEYA LABIATA. 



For the opportunity of viewing these vegetable gems of foreign climes, we are 

 indebted to the many ardent and munificent patrons of Botany by which the 

 present era is distinguished ; to the zealous perseverance and undaunted courage 

 of travelling botanists ; and finally, to the various improvements that have been 

 introduced in the management of the Stove and Green-house. 



" Who loves a garden loves a green-house too. 

 Unconscious of a less propitious clime, 

 There hlooms exotic beauty, warm and snug, 

 While the winds whistle and the snows descend." — Cowpeb. 



Our drawing of this superb epiphyte was made from a plant in the collection 

 of George Barker, Esq., of Springfield ; who at the same time had another 

 specimen in the highest state of perfection, with four flowers in a cluster ; and 

 Dr. Lindley informs us he has seen it with six. The colour of the lip (which is 

 usually described as a rich crimson) varies considerably in different plants. In 

 the specimen selected for our figure it was by no means crimson, but a union, 

 apparently, of crimson and violet, producing a hue of extraordinary richness, in 

 which purple was more predominant than red. 



Our plant differs in some respects (though perhaps accidentally) from Dr. 

 Lindley 's character ; the petals are by no means acute, but decidedly obtuse ; the 

 Up too cannot be said to be undivided ; on the contrary, it is so distinctly emar- 

 ginate as to be almost 2-lobed. 



The Genus Cattleya was so called by Dr. Lindley in compliment to William 

 Cattley, Esq., of Barnet, Hertfordshire, a munificent patron of Botany, and a 

 most ardent collector of rare plants. Eleven species are described by Dr. 

 Lindley in his Gen. et Sp. Orchid., of which eight are to be met with in the 

 'various public or private collections of this kingdom : they are all strikingly beau- 

 tiful, but to our present species must be conceded the pre-eminence. It is a native 

 of Brazil, and is said to have been introduced in 1818 by Wm. Swainson, Esq. 



The introduction of this plant into our Magazine affords us an opportunity 

 of making a few remarks upon the tribe (Epidendrece) to which it belongs, and 

 which is distinguished by the peculiar structure of the caudicula. This singular 

 appendage, as observed by Dr. Lindley, is not transparent, and connected with 

 the stigma by means of a gland, as in Vandece, but powdery and very often 

 turned back upon the face of the pollen-masses, as in the genus Epidendrum, 

 which has accordingly been selected as the type of this particular tribe. This 

 extensive genus was so named by Linneus (from em, upon, and bevhpov, wood) in 

 consequence of all the species being found growing Upon trees, or in decayed 

 vegetable mould, and hence called Epiphytes. The genera in which the same 

 modification of the caudicula is found as an Epidendrum, amount to about 28 in 

 number; and the species to upwards of 150 ; by far the greater part of which 

 are found in America within the tropics ; some few in India, Ceylon, the Indian 



