64 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ March, 
these when the plant is established have a broad creamy-white margin (well 
represented in the figure), which is more or less broken on the inner side where it 
joins the green portion of the leaf. This blending of green and white is remark¬ 
ably effective, not only in itself, but on account of the contrast it presents to the 
red-leaved kinds. D. vagina is one of those sterling plants which cannot fail to 
please. It is from the South Sea Islands, and was introduced by Mr. John Gr. 
Veitch.—T. M. 
THE NEW GRENADA CATTLEYAS FUGACIOUS. 
J|^OW that we have had some experience in the cultivation of this interesting 
division of Cattleyas , I find that they are not so valuable, from a persistent- 
flowering point of view, as other divisions flowering at different periods of 
the season. As to beauty and variety of colour they have no equals, but 
when one finds them so short-lived it considerably lowers their merit. Whether 
it be owing to our short days—very short in comparison to what the plants must 
enjoy of light in a native habitat at this particular time, or whether it be their nature, 
I am not in a position to pronounce upon. Probably both these causes may affect 
them. Certain it is that the quality of the sepaline and petaline segments, and even 
of the labellum, which stands longest generally, is not such as to keep our eyes 
feasting upon their beauteous colours for any length of time. They expand with 
coyness, and after they are expanded, unless the atmosphere be of the nicest balanced 
kind as to mildness and moisture, they crumple up like a piece of silk paper. They 
want consistency to keep their segments fully expanded, and mayhap the flower 
you are admiring to-day, on the first day of its expansion, may be less beautiful 
to-morrow. I was a little surprised at the time, that Mr. Bateman could not 
command a worthy collection to compete for his £10 prize last season, but my 
surprise gets somewhat subdued as I myself prove the shyness of this division to 
show us their flowers with any degree of regularity like other Cattleyas —I don’t 
know a single exception; and when we do see them they pass away from us like 
the inflorescence of a Stanhopea , before we can, as it were, call our friends 
together to see them. 
I find at best that the flowers won’t stand over fourteen days, and where they 
do so they must be .face to face with their glass horizon. I also find that small 
plants, that is flowering plants, with from one to four spathes, give a better return 
than larger ones. I find, moreover, that to flower them to what might be called 
perfection, so far as we have been able to see, the pots or baskets in which 
they are growing must be crammed full of roots in the interior, and over the 
exterior. We have never had them better, nor so good, since the days they were 
in that condition; and I am just thinking that possibly Mr. Marshall, who 
exhibited them so grandly at the Royal Horticultural Society, may have 
experienced since somewhat the same peculiarity in flower development and 
flower persistency. Probably he may tell you in the pages of the Florist and 
Pomologist. I may state that we have hundreds of them in the best condition 
