6 CATTLEYA CRISPA. 
God ! Everlasting Father ! Holy One ! 
Our God, our Father, our Eternal All ! 
Source whence we came, and whither we return, 
Who made our spirits, who our bodies made, 
Who made the heaven, who made the flowery land, 
Who made all made, who orders, governs all ! " 
It is a native of Rio Janeiro, whence it was sent, in 1826, to the London Horti- 
cultural Society, by Sir Henry Chamberlayne, Bart. Since that time many plants 
have been introduced, and now, although not common, it may be found in most of 
the leading collections, and will, ere long, doubtlessly be in the possession of every 
zealous cultivator in the kingdom. 
The genus Cattleya is less difficult of cultivation than most growers imagine. 
The majority err in keeping the plants in an atmosphere too hot and humid ; others, 
equally in the wrong, give too much water to the roots in winter, when the plant is, 
or ought to be, dormant. By the practice of the first, the plants grow delicate and 
weakly, and are unable to push flowers ; while the result of the second is, rotten or 
greatly injured roots, so that the plant cannot make a good growth the succeeding 
season for want of good roots. Now as Cattleyas thrive best in a degree of heat 
below that required for the major part of orchidagous plants, and as they are too 
few in number to have a house appropriated to themselves, the best place is to set 
them at the coolest end of the house in which they are grown, when they will 
thrive and flower much finer than before. 
At Chatsworth, the degree of heat given to Cattleyas, as near as we can tell, 
varies in the growing season from seventy to seventy-five degrees, and in 
the winter from sixty to sixty-five degrees. During the growing season the 
roots are liberally supplied with water, and the whole plant is, say once a week in 
fine weather, sprinkled over in the evening with a syringe or fine rose. In the 
winter the roots are kept nearly dry, and the top of the plant is not watered at all. 
It is customary, towards three or four o'clock during summer, to throw a little water 
on the path and flue, which renders the atmosphere moderately humid, and greatly 
refreshes and strengthens the plants. For further particulars on potting, &c., see vol. 
iv. page 122. 
The drawing was taken from a plant that flowered in the orchideae-house at 
Chatsworth last summer. 
The generic name is explained vol. iv. page 122. 
The specific name crispa, or curled, refers to the ringlet-like undulations of the lip. 
