358 
The Garden Magazine, July, 1924 
Of the Genus Laelia 
T HE mention of Cattleya immediately conjures up the closely re¬ 
lated genus Laelia which differs in having eight pollen masses 
instead of four. Laelia is a smaller genus than Cattleya and the species 
are mainly from the hotter parts of Mexico, Guatemala, and Brazil. 
The first that demands notice is the Brazilian L. purpurata whose 
magnificent flowers are among the finest of all American Orchids. The 
pseudo-bulbs are two feet and more long, furrowed, more or less spindle- 
shaped with a pair of oblong leaves notched at the apex and bear a 
truss of from 3 to 7 flowers. The sepals are recurved and spreading 
and with the broader petals are pure white; the lip is rich crimson 
sometimes tipped with white passing to rose color at the base and 
yellow within the throat. It flowers during the early summer. Lrom 
the same country hails L. harpopbylla with slender, round, one-leafed 
pseudo-bulb and racemes of from 6 to 8 flowers with lance-shaped 
sepals and petals, orange-vermilion, lip of same color edged with white. 
Very different in habit is the Mexican L. anceps with clusters of from 
3 to 6 flowers at the end of a long, slender but rigid stem. The flower 
is about 4 inches across with purple to rosy-lilac sepals and petals 
and a crimson lip marked with yellow toward the base. It blossoms 
in December and January. As in the case with other species there are 
lovely pale-colored and albino forms of this charming Orchid. Some- 
r what similar, but a dwarfer plant with recurving petals and sepals and 
‘a broader lip, is L. autumnalis, also from Mexico. 
A truly superb Orchid is L. superbiens, a vigorous species with a 
flower scape from 3 to 9 feet long produced in winter and bearing some¬ 
times as many as 20 flowers. The sepals and petals are deep rose color 
paler toward the base, the lip crimson in front, yellowish on the sides. 
This is a Mexican plant and so too is the dwarf L. majalis whose flowers 
are from 7 to 8 inches across with rosy-lilac sepals and petals, and 3- 
lobed purplish lip marked with white. It flowers from the young 
growths during the summer months. Its whole plant is only a few 
inches high and the size of its flowers is in consequence most surprising. 
There are other fine species of Laelia and the crossing of this genus with 
that of Cattleya has produced the bigeneric Laelio-Cattleyas in all 
their astonishing variety and beauty. 
Diminutive Plants that Prove Fine Parents 
/^\N THE Organ Mountains in Brazil grow some half a dozen species 
of Sophronitis, a genus of diminutive plants with large flowers that 
has been of immense service to the Orchid-breeders. Crossed with 
Cattleyaand Laelia it has given rise to some glorious hybrids. The 
finest species is 5 . grandiflora, with one-leafed pseudo-bulbs and flowers 
3 inches across. The sepals and petals vary from cinnabar to dark 
scarlet and the lip which has pointed and incurved sides is vellow 
streaked with bright red. It flowers in November and December. A 
related species with violet colored flowers is S. violacea. 
Another genus which has been crossed with the above three genera, 
much to the advantage of the Orchid lover, is Brassavola. One of 
the handsomest and most used species is B. Digbyana from Honduras. 
This has Cattleya-like flowers with the edge of the lip broken up into 
longhair-like fringes, which character has been transmitted to its hybrid 
progeny. The sepals and petals are greenish-white tinted with purple 
and the lip cream colored stained with purple at the tip. The gray 
colored B. glauca from Mexico differs chiefly in its white lip which is 
not fringed. 
1 he genus Epidendrum of which over 400 species are known has 
also been united with Cattleya and the other genera by the hybridist. 
An old but very beautiful species is E. vitellinum with erect racemes of 
orange-vermilion flowers with segments (the lip especially) sharp 
pointed and yellow' column. The form called majus is superior to 
the type. This Orchid is Mexican but it also grows in Guatemala. 
Very different in habit are E. erectum and E. radicans which have tall, 
slender, leafy, branching stems andwhich terminate in racemose clusters 
of flowers, magenta-purple in the first-named, orange-scarlet in the 
other. The flower is small with deeply lobed and toothed lip, but 
lasts for a long time and the plants themselves are in flower well-nigh 
the year round. These and others are natives of Mexico and other 
parts of Central America. 
Lrom the mountains of Colombia came E. IP'allisii, another leafy, 
thin-stemmed species that grows 2 feet tall and has flowers 2 inches 
across, yellow spotted with purple, the lip flattened, whitish, promi¬ 
nently streaked with purple. This again is in flower for most of the 
year and is a very attractive species. The West Indian E.jragrans with 
rather small cream-colored flowers, the lip streaked with crimson, 
deserves mention on account of its delightful fragrance. 
Of the many others I have only space to name E. prismatocarpum a 
striking species of vigorous habit and foot-long leaves crowning stout 
pseudo-bulbs. The flowers are racemose, creamy yellow, the sepals 
and petals marked with dark purple blotches and the free part of the 
lip rose color margined with pale yellow. It is native of Central 
America and blossoms in June and July. 
Very closely related to the Epidendrums is the handsome Diacrium 
bicornutum native of Trinidad and Demerara. It is distinguished by 
the lip being free at the base and spreading with two hollow horns be¬ 
tween its lateral lobes. The pseudo-bulbs are fusiform, about a foot 
high; the flowers are pure white each about 3 inches across with a few 
crimson spots in the middle of the lip and produced from 6 to 12 in a 
raceme. A lover of strong heat and abundant moisture, it is seldom 
seen to perfection under cultivation. 
Of Butterfly Orchids and Other Beauties 
T HE Oncidiums are a very large group comprising about 300 species 
found from Mexico and the West Indies southward to Brazil. 
Many have beautifully colored flowers produced, in some species, many 
hundreds together in large much-branched paniculate inflorescences. 
Such a species is the Guatemalan 0. leucocbilum whose flower stems are 
sometimes as much as 10 feet long and bear a multitude of greenish- 
yellow barred and blotched with dark brown flowers each with a lobed 
white lip. The Brazilian 0. flexuosum with its showy yellow, spotted 
with brown, flowers produced in abundance is a favorite Orchid with 
many folk. 
Lovely, too, is 0. varicosum and its variety Rogersii with rich clear 
yellow lip 2\ inches across, but insignificant sepals and petals; the inflor¬ 
escence is much branched and bears a hundred and more flowers in the 
late autumn. Yet another with flower stems of similar character is O. 
ligrinum from Mexico and adjacent lands with yellow lip 2 inches across 
and greenish yellow marked with shining, chestnut-brown sepals and 
petals. The flowers have the odor of Violets and open in late autumn 
and winter. The very similar 0. splendidum, native of the same coun¬ 
tries, flowers in spring and early summer. Very different in appearance 
is O. macranlhum with large sepals and petals each with a distinct claw 
and a very small, pointed lip. The color is varied and attractive; the 
upper sepal is olive-brown suffused with gold, the two lateral ones orange- 
yellow, the petals bright yellow and the lip white marked with brown 
on the sides. The blossoms are from 3^ to 5 inches across and borne 
on a twining, branching, many-flowered stem several feet long. 
Lrom the Organ Mountains, Brazil, came O. crispv.m with its large 
and remarkably handsome flower borne some fifty or so together in a 
panicle. The blossom is from 2 to 3 inches across, greenish-brown to 
reddish-brown with yellow stripes, and the parts are beautifully crisped. 
This Orchid seems to have no set period of flowering and so can be seen 
in bloom at different times through the year. 
There are scores of other species worthy of description but 0. pa- 
pilio, the Butterfly Orchid, must not be forgotten in the briefest of lists. 
This species with its singularly attractive flowers is native of Trinidad 
and Venezuela and has dark-colored flattened pseudo-bulbs each cap¬ 
ped by a single purple-brown leathery leaf. The flower-scapes which 
arise from the base of the plant are slender, erect, about 2J feet tall, and 
continue to bear through a long season flower after flower though seldom 
is there more than one open at a time. The back sepal and the two 
petals are each about ^ inches long, linear and erect, dark green without, 
purple within; the lateral sepals are oblong, tapering, wavy, and arched 
downward, bright yellow with transverse bands of orange-red; the 
lip is roundish about inches across, yellow mottled all over with 
brown, and waved along the edge. Its common name well describes 
the appearance of the flower. 
Some Oncidiums like 0. varicosum have ordinary looking pseudo¬ 
bulbs, in others like 0. papilio they are flattened and make humus col¬ 
lecting niches against the support; in others like 0. Cavendisbianum 
they are absent and their function is served by thick, fleshy, erect leaves. 
A Favorite of Collectors 
A LAVORITE genus with curiously blotched flowers is Odonto- 
glossum of which about 100 species are known from the high moun¬ 
tains of Mexico south to those of Peru. They require cool conditions 
and are not easy to grow at sea-level under our hot summer sun, but in 
England they thrive amazingly. The hybridist has been very suc¬ 
cessful with this genus and the outcome of his work is seen in hundreds 
of named sorts, many of which have flowers of extraordinary coloring. 
Queen of the genus and one of the most useful of all Orchids is the 
Colombian 0. crispum of which there are many named varieties. The 
flowers are fragrant and are borne in arching racemes which are some¬ 
times panicled and vary from white to yellow and pink, some of the forms 
