[Plate 45.] 



DARK-COLOURED VARIETY OF THE AUTUMNAL 



LiELIA. 



(l^elia autumnalis, var. atro-rubens.) 

 A Beautiful Epiphyte, from Mexico, belonging to the Natural Order of Orchids. 



J§>pectftc (ID&aracter. 



LiELIA AUTUMNALIS. - Pseudo-bulbs oblong-lanceolate, obscurely four-rowed, with two opposite blunt edges, other- 

 wise nearly terete, sheathed with large imbricated, closely-applied scales, and crowned with two leaves, which 

 do not exceed five inches in length, oblong, obtuse, coriaceous, smooth. Scape from between the two leaves, a 

 foot and a half to two feet high, terete, jointed, with sheathing scales at the joints, terminating with from two 

 to four flowers, which are large, showy, and fragrant. Perianth very similar to that of L. anceps, but destitute of 

 the green rib. Lip with two large, erect, whitish side-lobes, and an obovate, obtuse- apiculated, deep purple 

 intermediate one ; in the disk are two very distinct, upright, membranaceous long lamella;, or plates ; column 

 semi -cylindrical ; pollen masses with the four superior lobes obcordate, the four lower ones smaller, semi- 

 obcordate. 



Botanical Magazine, 3817. 



THE plant here figured is an evidence of the divergence in colour from that of the type 

 species often existent in Orchids, as the subject of our plate in no way differs from 

 the original L. autumnalis, except in its extraordinarily deep colour — a condition, it may be 

 remarked, of little account to botanists, but highly prized by cultivators, as proved by 

 the extremely high prices which these rare coloured novelties usually command. This 

 beautiful Laslia was exhibited by Mr. Bull, before the Floral Committee of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, during the autumn of 1881, who unanimously voted it a First-Class 

 Certificate, a mark of excellence which it well deserved. The colour of the flower when 

 first open is intensely deep ruby-purple; when more fully developed the lower part of the 

 petals and sepals assumes a paler hue. In all its stages it is a lovely flower. It is of large 

 size, the petalite and sepalite segments being broad and stout in substance. No doubt it 

 will succeed under similar conditions of heat and moisture to the original species, which, 

 like a good many other Orchids indigenous to the cooler parts of Mexico, have been doomed 



