Decemb r 13, 18 r s. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
:41 
LJ3LIA VICTORIA. 
At the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Floml 
Committee at the Drill Hall Westminster, on November 13th last! 
Baron Schroder, The Dell, Egham (gardener, Mr. Ballantine)’ 
showed a specimen of this exceptionally handsome and interesting 
L. elegans. It is similar in habit to Cattleya Mossise, having short 
rusitorm one-leaved pseudo-bulbs, but the leaves are longer, more 
in the way of L. elegans. The flowers are as large as those of that 
species, and splendidly coloured ; the sepals and petals are bright 
losy purple, with darker reticulations, and are similar in shape and 
size to those of C Dowiana, while the lip is of an intense and 
beautiful deep blood purple, the rich dark colour being carried to 
the margin, and the tube only showing a little of the golden 
venation of C. Dowiana. It is to be regretted that this plant, 
thiough being a hybrid, must always be scarce, as its great beauty 
and distinctness claim for it the premier position among the dark- 
flowered Laelias. It flowers in August.” 
Lmlia \ ictoria presents an interesting combination of the 
characters of the two Orchids above described. The petals are 
Fig. CO.—LIELIA VICTORIA. 
hybrid Orchid, and from one of the flowers our illustration (fig. 60) 
was prepared. This plant resulted from a cross between Cattleya 
crispa and Lcelia Dominiana, tie latter being itself a hybrid. Mr. 
B. S. Williams thus describes the parents named :— 
“C. crispa.— A splendid free-growing Orchid with one-leaved 
sub-cylindraceous angulate stems about 14 foot high, flowering in 
July, August, and September; the flowers have the sepals and 
petals blush white, and the lip white, with a rich crimson stain on 
the front lobe. A single spike frequently produces four or five 
flowers, which continue in perfection for two or three weeks. This 
is a fine plant for exhibition in July and August. The colour of 
the flower is remarkably attractive, and it always produces a good 
effect in a collection.” 
“ L. Dominiana. —This glorious hybrid was rd ed in Messrs. 
Veitch’s nursery by Mr. Dominy, and is the result of a cross 
between Cattleya Dowiana and a species of Laclia, probably 
much undulated and folded after the style of Cattleya crispa, the 
sepals being recurved and also suggestive of the same parent. The 
lip is particularly beautiful, of an intensely rich rosy crimson or 
purple tint, narrowly margined with white. The flowers are also 
very fragrant, and altogether the hybrid possesses ample to recom- 
j mend it to notice, though it is likely to be scarce for some time to 
[ come. 
HEXI5IA BIDEXTATA. 
The “ Botanical Magazine ” for December contains a coloured 
figure and description of this curious little Orchid, from which we 
extract the following :—Hexisia, or as it was originally, probably 
by inadvertence, spelt Hexisea, is a small genus of Mexican, Central 
I American, and tropical South American Orchids, of which one 
j species only had previously been figured, the H. imbricata, Eeichb.f, 
[ (as Diothonaea imbricata) in Lindley’s “ Sertum Orchidearum,” 
| t. 40, f. 1 ; a native of Roraima in Guiana. The genus was first 
