68 



PAXTON'S FLOWEK GAEDEN. 



Since that time large importations have been made from the Caraccas and New Graaada of a 

 Cattleya with pinker flowers, of much larger size, the veins of whose lip alone were crimson, while 

 the spaces between were yellowish or white or both; some of them had crimson veins run together. 

 Upon these specimens Sir William Hooker proposed to establish a new species, to which he gave 

 the name of Mossice; and it must be owned that the peculiarities of the Caraccas plants seemed 

 sufficient to justify that conclusion. We are however obliged to say, after a most careful comparison 

 of large numbers of this Cattleya Mossia, that we can find no distinctive characters in it except size 

 and colour. 



It would be useless to attempt an enumeration of the varieties that exist of this plant, unless for 

 the purposes of a Florist. We therefore merely present those now figured with the names of the 

 White Ruby-lipped Cattleya (C. labiata Candida) and the Blotched (C. l.picta). 



The following account of the climate in which Cattleya labiata grows, furnishes cultivators with 

 hints which they will readily apply to practice. "At this elevation (2000 feet) the climate is very 

 much cooler than it is at Rio. In the months of May and June the thermometer has been known to 

 be as low as 32° just before day-break : the lowest at which I observed it myself was one morning at 

 the end of May, when, at 8 o'clock a.m., it indicated 39°. The highest to which it rose during the 

 six months I resided there, was in the end of February, when, one day, it indicated 84° at noon. 

 The hot season is also the season of rains, and it is then that the mass of the Orchids, and almost 

 every other tribe of plants, come into flower. From these facts cultivators ought to take a lesson in 

 the cultivation of the productions of this and of similar regions. If the difference of temperature 

 between the season of wet and that of flowering be so great in the state of nature, it must be obvious 

 that to grow them well, artificially, a somewhat similar state of things ought to be observed. The 

 greater part of the Orchids which are sent to England from the Organ Mountains, grow in the region 

 of the above temperature, the elevation being from 3000 to 3500 feet above the level of the sea. In 

 the account which I shall presently give of my visit to the summit of those mountains, which is more 

 than double that elevation, I shall have occasion to mention several species which may be cultivated 

 in a much cooler temperature. Another reason why no general rule can be laid down for the 

 cultivation of these plants, is, the great variety of soil and situation which they affect in their native 

 country ; some, like Zygopetalum MacJcaii, are terrestrial, and grow in open exposed places ; others, 

 like Warrea tricolor, are also terrestrial, but grow in the deep virgin forests ; some, like Zygopetalum 

 maxillare, are only found to inhabit a particular tree, while others are found indiscriminately on all 

 kinds of trees, on rocks, and even on the ground ; some, like Laelia cinnabarina, grow in moist places on 

 exposed rocks; while others, like Cyrtopera Woodfordii, grow in a similar soil, but in shaded placts; 

 some, like Maxillari apicta, grow on the most dry and exposed rocks ; while others, like Grobya 

 Amherstice, grow also on dry rocks, but generally in the shade." — Gardner in Journal of 

 Hort. Soc, i. 277. ' 



