It gives us great pleasure to be able to figure one of the finest hybrid Zygopetalums that has yet been raised in this country, and one, moreover, which is totally distinct from any other member of the genus. The plant will be appreciated by growers of Orchids on account of the uncommon colour of its lip—blue being a colour that is seldom met with amongst Orchidaceous plants, but one which is, nevertheless, in great request.
The present novelty was raised by Colonel Clay, of Birkenhead, some few years ago, and was the result of a cross between Zygopetalum crinitum and Z. maxillare. The hybrid was exhibited at one of the meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society, in May, 1877, and was awarded a Certificate of Merit. Since that time we have acquired the stock of this plant from Colonel Clay, and have bloomed several specimens. The form represented by our artist in the accompanying plate bloomed in the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries in March last. We have also bloomed another variety, somewhat different from the foregoing in the markings, the colours being the same; the lip was in this case slightly blotched, and the sepals and petals were suffused with brown.
Zygopetalum Clayii is a free-growing evergreen plant, with foliage reaching to about eighteen inches in height. It produces its flowers at different periods of the year, at the time when it is starting into growth. The flowers are borne in upright spikes from the base of the young growths. The sepals and petals are brownish purple, with a narrow green border, and sometimes distant cross lines of green, while the lip is broad, and of a dark purplish blue. The plant lasts in bloom for about two months.
It is a very free-growing Orchid, requiring exactly the same treatment as Zygopetalum Mackayi, and other familiar species. The Cattleya house will be found to suit it best, and it should be grown in a compost of good fibrous loam with a little leaf-mould added. Being naturally a strong fleshy rooting plant it requires a good supply of water during the growing season. It is best cultivated in a pot.
Orchids at New-Hall-Hey.—When visiting the collection of G. W. Law Schofield, Esq., New-Hall-Hey, Rawtenstall, near Manchester, we noticed the finest variety of Dendrobium lituiflorum we have ever seen. It bore seventy of its lovely showy blossoms, the sepals and petals of which were of a very dark purple colour, and the lip white, edged with purple; this was one of the richest coloured Orchids we have seen. We also noticed a grand variety of D. crassinode superbum, each blossom being three and a half inches across, and of a very good colour. Associated with this was D. MacCarthiæ, which one seldom sees, though it bears some of the most beautifully bright pinkish rose and white flowers that can be imagined, and they are of good size and substance. Of Odontoglossum vexillarium there was a plant which had upon it forty-one of its richly coloured flowers, each measuring four and a half inches across. In the Cattleya house was a very fine Cattleya Mossiæ grandis, with sepals and petals of a delicate rose colour, and the lip large, of a rich magenta, with a lighter margin, each blossom measuring eight inches across. There is here a newly erected house for Cattleyas, which are doing well, and reflect great credit upon Mr. J. Wise, the gardener, who takes very great interest in his plants, everything being kept in good order.—B. S. W.
Cattleya gigas burfordiensis.—We noticed a wonderful example of Cattleya gigas burfordiensis at a recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. It was exhibited by Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., M.P., and was deservedly awarded a First Class Certificate. The plant bore four very fine blossoms, each measuring more than eight inches in diameter; the sepals and petals were of a beautiful rose colour, the lip large, three inches across, and of a deep amethyst colour, edged with dark purple-rose, the throat being orange, and the upper portion folded over the column of the same rich rosy purple colour as the lip. The plant was in a very vigorous state of growth, and the flowers stood up well, so as to give it an imposing appearance. It is no doubt one of the finest of the Cattleyas.—B. S. W.
PL. 51. CŒLIA BELLA.