43 
PL. CCLXXXIII. 
LAELIA PURPURATA lindl. var. ALBA Veitch. 
THE WHITE VARIETY OF LAELIA PURPURATA. 
LAELIA. Vide supra, p. 39. 
Laelia purpurata. Vide supra, p. 39. 
Var. alba. Sepalis petalisque albis, labello albo venis pallide roseis, disco pallidissime luteo. 
Var. alba Veitch, Gard. Chron., 1869, p. 561. 
Laelia Schroederi delicata O’Brien in Gard. Chron., 1890, pt. 2, p. 451. 
aelia purpurata alba is an exceedingly beautiful variety, almost an albino, 
which originally appeared with Messrs James Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, 
in 186g, when it was exhibited by them at a Meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, on May i8th. of that year. Its peculiar character lies in 
the nearly white lip which is veined and slightly suffused with pale rose outside 
the throat and on the dise, the yellow of this latter part being very much 
reduced. 
A similar form appeared with Messrs Linden, L’Horticulture Interna¬ 
tionale, Parc Léopold, Brussels, during last year, whose beauty may be seen 
from the annexed portrait. It approaches the variety Schroederi , but both the 
rosy veins and the yellow of the throat are of a lighter tint, whence it received 
the name of Laelia Schroederi delicata , from M r J. O’Brien. 
The plant to which the name L. Schroederi was originally applied was 
thought to be a new species, allied to L. grandis , and a native of Bahia ; and 
afterwards, a natural hybrid between L. purpurata and some other species, 
probably L. xanthina; but like L. Wyattiana , a supposed natural hybrid between 
L. purpurata and L. crispa , it has since proved to be simply a variety of L. purpu¬ 
rata. Besides the absence of any actual characters which point to L. xanthina as 
one parent, there is the further difficulty that the two species grow a great 
distance apart, the one at the extreme north, the other at the south of the 
Brazilian Cattleya and Laelia coast région. L. crispa and L. purpurata also 
grow at a considérable distance apart, for which reason natural hybrids between 
them must not be expected to occur. 
Returning to our présent plant, it should be pointed out that the name alba 
is often wrongly applied, in gardens, to a plant with white segments, but with 
the lip quite normal in character — in fact to what is really the typical form 
of the species. The beautiful form here figured is perhaps the nearest approach to 
an albino of L. purpurata which has yet appeared. R. A. Rolfe. 
