Читать книгу The Woodlands Orchids, Described and Illustrated - Frederick Boyle - Страница 11

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The fourth compartment is given up to Cattleya Gaskelliana, a species from Venezuela, not showy, as a rule—though striking exceptions can be found, as here—but always useful. Like Cattleya Schroderae it filled a gap when discovered in 1883, for there was no species at the time which flowered in July. Its normal colour is mauve; the lip has a big yellow blotch and a mottling of purple in the front.

About four hundred plants are accommodated in this house, among them four albinos—one with eight pseudo-bulbs and two flowering growths. But the finest flower is

Miss Clara Measures.—snowy white, of course, but with a lip like Cattleya Mossiae. Among others notable are:—

Dellensis.—A noble variety. Mauve-pink—the petals immensely broad. The great spreading lip has a gamboge throat fading to chrome-yellow, intersected with lines of bright crimson. The crimson of the front is defined as sharply as if by the stroke of a paint-brush.

Godseffiana.—Pale rosy mauve. Petals immense. Lip a curious dusky crimson, with a narrow dusky-yellowish outline.

Duke of Marlborough.—Gigantic. Sepals and petals bright rose; the broad lip has the same dusky outline.

Measuresiana.—Very pale. The crimson of the lip, which is long but comparatively narrow, runs far up the throat, but leaving two clear yellow ‘eyes’ as distinct as in Cattleya gigas.

Sanderiana.—Pale. The lip, of excellent colour, spreads so suddenly as to form a perfect circle.

Herbertiana.—Mauve. A very compact flower. The bright yellow of the throat extends downwards and to either side of the lip in a very remarkable manner. The dusky margin surrounds a purple-crimson stain, scored with lines of deeper hue.

Woodlandsensis.—Here the same oddity—due to natural hybridisation doubtless—is carried much further. The whole disc of the lip is buff, with only the merest touch of purple on either side the central line, and another, scarcely perceptible, at the tip.

Along the roof hang small plants of Cattleya gigas and others.