Cypripedium Lawrenceanum has, as we have already said, beautifully marked foliage, so that even when not in blossom, it is found to be an object of attraction. The upper or dorsal sepals of the flowers were in this case three inches across, white, striped with plum-purple, which runs in curved lines from the base nearly to the margin. The petals are green along the upper edge, suffused with purple towards the end, and having black wart-like spots, and a fringe of purple hairs along the margin. The pouch or lip is large, of a reddish brown colour in front, the under and hinder part yellowish green.
These plants are best grown in pots with peat, and a little charcoal, or sometimes a little good fibrous loam mixed with the peat. It is a free-rooting species, and likes to be well elevated above the pot rim, so that its roots can penetrate readily and work freely in the rough material. The pot should be half filled with drainage, so that a good supply of moisture may be given to the roots during the growing season. The Cattleya or the East India-house seems to suit the plants well, as in these structures they grow and flower freely.
The flowers are very useful for cutting, as they will keep a long time in vases if the water is kept sweet and pure.
Baron Schröder’s Orchids.—On the occasion of a recent visit to The Dell, Staines, the seat of Baron Schröder, we had the good fortune to inspect the fine collection of Orchids which has been got together. The houses are well built, after the plans of Mr. Ballantyne, the gardener, and are placed in good positions; not only have the ventilation and heating power been well considered, but cleanliness also; indeed the arrangement of the houses leaves nothing to be desired. The Orchids were, at the time, looking remarkably well. Entering the Phalænopsis house we noticed a fine plant in flower of the rare and beautiful Phalænopsis intermedia Portei, a treat which seldom falls to one’s lot, for it is a matter of regret that this splendid Phalænopsis is so rare in collections: it must be very scarce in its native habitat or collectors would surely find it oftener. Cypripedium Spicerianum was also flowering here. Several different species of Nepenthes were in fine character, growing above a tank, with their pitchers gracefully drooping over the water, in which position they seemed to be quite at home. In this house were also some grand plants of different species of Saccolabium, Cypripedium, &c., all doing well. Leaving the Phalænopsis house the Cattleya house, which runs at right angles to it, is next entered. Here we noticed a gigantic specimen of Cattleya exoniensis, carrying several spikes of flower; Lælia autumnalis atrorubens, with grand spikes, and flowers of unusual size and fine colour; and Dendrobium Wardianum in full beauty, suspended from the roof. The Cattleyas, &c., in this house were in grand condition, and bid fair to produce some fine spikes next season. In the Odontoglossum house Zygopetalum Gautieri was flowering well, also Miltonia candida and Sophronitis grandiflora. The East Indian Orchids were in an especially healthy condition, the collection containing some grand specimens of Vanda, Aërides, and Saccolabium.
This collection, which has been lately formed, bids fair to become one of the finest in the country, Baron Schröder being an enthusiastic lover of this handsome class of plants, and being also careful to obtain only the best varieties.—H. W.
PL. 23. LÆLIA XANTHINA.
LÆLIA XANTHINA.
[[Plate 23].]
Native of Brazil.
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs clavate fusiform, the narrowed base closely invested by imbricating bracts, monophyllous. Leaves oblong-lorate, bluntish, coriaceous, longer than the pseudobulbs, and with them reaching to about a foot in height. Scape four to six flowered, issuing from a terminal linear-oblong acute compressed bract or spathe, three-fourths of an inch wide and about four inches long, and of a pale green colour. Flowers leathery in texture, three to four inches across, very distinct in aspect; sepals and petals oblong-ligulate obtuse, undulated, the sides rolled back so that they appear convex, the petals most so, both of a deep golden yellow, more or less stained or flushed with olive-green; lip cucullate, subquadrate, obtusely three-lobed at the apex, yolk of egg colour, paler at the edge, the front border white, and marked on the disc by a few crimson-purple veins, which are not raised like crests above the surface, as in the allied L. flava. Column semiterete, clavate, lobulate at the apex, projected forwards, about as long as the entire edges of the lip and convergent therewith.
Lælia xanthina, Lindley, in Botanical Magazine, t. 5144; Bateman, Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants, t. 180; Rand, Orchids, 303.
Bletia xanthina, Reichenbach fil., in Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ, vi. 425; Id. Xenia Orchidaceæ, ii. 54.