APRIL. 
69 
THE NEW GRENADA CATTLEYAS. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
If we cannot as yet exactly speak of Orchids for the million, we may 
certainly entertain the notion of Orchids for the many, since it has been 
discovered that a goodly number of the most charming amongst them— 
Cattleyas, Lycastes, and Odontoglossums in particular, will grow, aye, and 
thrive, under what is called “ cool ” treatment. Prominent among these 
Cattleyas is a varied group, which hears the name of the lamented Warsce- 
wicz, and which is well represented by the plant selected as our illustration, 
for which we are indebted to W. Marshall, Esq., of Enfield. 
This Cattleya Warscewiczii is, as we have said, a most variable plant, 
the imported examples differing in the size, form, and colouring of their 
flowers, just as a batch of seedling Pelargoniums raised in our greenhouses 
might vary in these respects. They pass from pure white through every 
blushing shade to deeply tinted rose, but are all marked by the presence 
of an orange-coloured blotch on the lip. The blending of colours in some 
of them is remarkably beautiful. To different forms different names have 
been given—as Triamei, rose-colour, Wageneri, white, and quadricolor, 
parti-coloured, but they are all specifically identical, and possibly not even 
themselves distinct from the better known Cattleyas, labiata and Mossias. Mr. 
Anderson, who has won his laurels as an Orchid-grower, has obligingly sent, 
us the subjoined remarks respecting these New Grenada Cattleyas :— 
From the very centre of this tropical region comes a hatch of Cattleyas, 
which for loveliness and diversity of feature are unapproached by any cog¬ 
nate species. Even Orchid-growers have scarcely yet had any idea of the 
value of the New Grenada Cattleyas for decorative purposes, from New Year’s- 
day, past Candlemas, on to the very end of March. We have been so long 
accustomed to tiny specimens of Wageneri, Warscewiczii delicata, Triamei, 
and the many intermediate varieties, which are just so many shades darker 
or lighter in the sepals, petals, and labellum, that up to the present time it 
has not been within the hounds of possibility to fairly estimate their merits. 
Thanks to the enterprise of Messrs. Low & Co., Messrs. Backhouse & Son, 
and others, including, of course, Mr. Weir’s efforts in that direction in 
behoof of the Royal Horticultural Society, we have now supplies nearly 
equal, at all events proportionate, to those of Mossiae, Leopoldii, amethys- 
tina, and some others. And what about the flowers ? Wherein is the 
superiority manifest from the original specimens in the collections of the 
country ? 
In order to appreciate the case fully we had better deal with facts. For 
example: we have Wageneri, for which we paid ten guineas, and Warscewiczii 
delicata, which cost quite as much, both remarkable for their size when intro¬ 
duced into the collection—some three hack bulbs and one “ lead ! ” Triamei 
and Warscewiczii were bought in later at a lesser, although at a very high 
figure, and all have bloomed. The delicata variety, of which a splendid 
plate has been produced in Mr. Warner’s Select Orchidaceous Plants, now bears 
thirty-three very fine flowers. In the imported plants we have not only all 
these types, but we have as much variety as is to be seen in a collection of 
Pelargoniums similar in number, and many of them vastly superior to others 
in form, in substance, and in every other feature which constitutes excellence 
in a flower. Even judged by the canon of the florist, many of them are 
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