41 
PL. CCLXXX 1 I. 
LAELIA PURPURATA lindl. 
THE PURPLE-STAINED LAELIA. 
LAELIA. Perigonii foliola explanata; exteriora lanceolata, aequalia; interiora saepissime majora. Labellum 
subintegrum v. trilobum, lobi latérales lati, columnam involventes. Columna longiuscula, clavata. Pollinia compressa, 
in quoque loculo 4, appendicnla granulosa lineari connexa. 
Laelia Lindl. Gen. et Sp. Orch. Pl. 1831, p. 115. — Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant., III, p. 533. 
Laelia purpurata. Pseudobulbis fusiformibus subcompressis monophyllis, foliis ligulato-oblongis, pedunculo tri- 
septemfloro, flore maximo expanso membranaceo, sepalis oblongo-lanceolatis acutis, petalis paullo latioribus, labello 
maximo rotundato undulato emarginato obscure trilobo, columna clavata sub-triquetra. 
Laelia purpurata Lindl. in Paxt. Fl. Gard., III, (1852-1853) pp. ni, 112, t. 96. — Pescatorea, t. 37. — 
III. Hort., III, t. 83. — Flore des Serres, t. 1183. — Warn. Sel. Orch. ser. I, t. 40. — Gen. Orch., t. 22. — 
Gard. Chron., 1883, pt. 2, pp. 530, 533, cum fig. — Veitch Man. Orch. PL, pt. 2 , p. 80, cum fig. — 
Revue Hort. Belge, 1888, p. 201, cum tab. 
Cattleya Brysiana Lem., Jard. Fleur., III (1852) t. 275. 
Bletia purpurata Rchb. f. in Walp. Ann., VI, p. 423. 
Laelia Casperiana Rchb. f. in Koch, Wochenschrift, II (1859) p. 336. 
L. Wyattiana Rchb. f. in Gard. Chron., 1883, pt. 2, p. 426. 
alf a century ago, this magnificent Laelia was absolutely unknown in 
Europe, though at the présent time few Orchids are more widely 
cultivated or popular, and the title “ Queen of Orchids ” which has 
been applied to it, is by no means undeserved. It was in the year 1846 that 
François Devos first met with the species, growing on trees in the district 
of Santa Catharina, in Southern Brazil. During the following year he sent 
plants to the horticultural establishment of M. Ambrose Verschaffelt, at Ghent, 
one of which was afterwards acquired by Messrs James Backhouse and Sons, 
of York. This plant flowered during the summer of 1852, when it was exhibited 
at a Garden Meeting of the Horticultural Society, as a new Cattleya, and 
produced quite a sensation. D r Bindley, in describing it, immediately afterwards, 
as Laelia purpurata , spoke of it as one of the most striking novelties which 
had for a long time been seen. Shortly afterwards it was independently described 
by Lemaire, as Cattleya Brysiana , from a plant which flowered in the collection 
of M. Brys, of Bornhem, near Antwerp, and which is said to hâve been received 
in 1850, also from the district of Santa Catharina. It may here be noted that 
the Laelia Brysiana described soon afterwards by Lemaire is quite a different 
plant, being one of the forms of L. elegans. The two hâve sometimes been 
confounded. There are two Laelias described by Reichenbach which I am also 
unable to distinguish from L. purpurata , namely L. Casperiana , and L. Wyattiana. 
The former is said to be allied to L. purpurata and L. crispa , and the latter 
