Our figure of this charming Lælia was taken from a finely-bloomed specimen in the well-grown collection of F. A. Philbrick, Esq., of Bickley, under the care of Mr. Heims, who has succeeded in flowering it very successfully. It was a very rare plant a few years ago, and then commanded a high price; but of late years there have been received large importations of it, and it may now be purchased at a more reasonable cost. The varieties vary to some extent in the size of their flowers and in the particular shade of colour, which is found to be the case with nearly all the imported Orchids.
Lælia harpophylla is an evergreen species, with thin stems and long narrowish pointed foliage, of a dark green colour; it grows a foot or more in height, the flower-spike proceeding from a sheath at the top of the stem, and rising about six inches above it, several flowers growing together on the spike. The blossom is of a beautiful bright orange-vermilion, and the lip is edged with white. It is a free-flowering plant, blooming in March, April, and May, and continuing its inflorescence for four or five weeks.
We find it to succeed well potted in fibrous peat, to which must be added good drainage, and a liberal supply of water during the time of its growth. The soil should also be kept moist through the resting season, so that the bulbs and foliage may be kept plump, as the bulbs being very thin, they require a more constant supply of nourishment than those of plants which have bulbs of a more substantial character. We have grown these plants in the Cattleya house, as near the light as possible, for they grow weakly if far off the light, though they require shading from the burning sun. They must also be kept free from insects.
Lælia amanda (Cattleya Rothschildiana).—This fine species, or natural hybrid, is cultivated under the two names above quoted, as we learn from a letter which accompanied some flowers of the plant, for which we are indebted to W. E. Brymer, Esq., Ilsington House, Puddleton, near Dorchester, and of which our artist has taken advantage to secure a drawing for the Orchid Album. The flowers somewhat resemble in character those of Cattleya maxima, but the stems (pseudobulbs) and foliage are quite distinct, being two-leaved, while the flowers are more chaste-looking than those of that species. The plant is very beautiful, and is a decided acquisition to this class of Lælias, the flowers being bright rose veined with rosy purple, and produced in October, at a season when there are but few Orchids in bloom, which makes it all the more valuable.—B. S. W.
PL. 118. ODONTOGLOSSUM ALEXANDRÆ COOKSONII.
ODONTOGLOSSUM ALEXANDRÆ COOKSONII.
[[Plate 118].]
Native of New Grenada.
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs oblong-ovate, compressed, diphyllous. Leaves ligulate-oblong, acute, channelled and narrowed towards the stalk-like base, of a cheerful green colour. Scape radical, supporting a many-flowered raceme exceeding the leaves, and having small acute bracts at the base of the pedicels. Flowers large and beautifully spotted; sepals ovate acuminate, the dorsal one rounded at the base into a short broadish claw, the margins revolute and undulate, white, with a few bold irregular blotches of brownish crimson, of which one is placed near the apex, and another forms an irregular transverse bar across the centre; the internal ones narrowing towards the base; petals broadly ovate acuminate, narrowed into a claw at the base, the margins entire, undulated, white like the sepals, with three or four rounder and smaller spots; lip oblong-ovate, with the shortly cuspidate apex recurved, the margins toothletted and much crisped, white, with a rich yellow stain on the disk, and a broad brown-crimson blotch on the anterior portion, the edges of the produced lobes inflected yellow striped with red, and broken up into a few short acute teeth; from its base proceed three blunt yellow ridges, of which the central one stops short with a blunt point, and the two side ones are continued into acute projecting yellow horns, having about midway an erect tooth on the upper margin. Column arcuately clavate, yellowish, winged, the wings white stripped with brown, toothed in the upper part, the teeth large, irregular, and set on behind the margin of the brownish prominent edge of the stigmatic cavity.
Odontoglossum Alexandræ Cooksonii, Williams and Moore, supra.