Santa Catarina was attached to it. And there, a short distance to the
north, lives Laelia pumila, which might supply the rosy tinge.

Several artificial hybrids of Catt. guttata Leopoldii have been raised. By
alliance with Catt. Dowiana it produces Catt. Chamberlainiana; with Catt.
superba, Feuillata; with Catt. Hardyana, Fowlerii; with Catt. Loddigesii,
Gandii; with Catt. Mendelii, Harrisii; with Laelio-Cattleya Marion, C. H.
Harrington; with Catt. quadricolor, Mitchelii; with Catt. Warcewiczii,
Atalanta. Catt. Victoria Regina also is assumed to be a natural hybrid of
Leopoldii with Catt. labiata. There may be other crosses probably, since
no official record of Hybridisation exists as yet. Curiously enough,
however, no one seems to have mated Cattleya Leopoldii with Laelia
purpurata so far as I can learn. Thus it is not yet proved that L. elegans
sprang from that alliance.

But the hybridisers have an opening here not less profitable than
interesting. For the natural supply is exhausted--if any stickler for
accuracy object that some still arrive every year, they may overhaul their
Boswell and make a note. Sir, said his hero, if I declare that there is no
fruit in an orchard, I am not to be charged with speaking falsely because
a man, examining every tree, finds two apples and three pears--I have not
the book at hand to quote the very words. When L. elegans was discovered,
in 1847, it must have been plentiful in its native home beyond all other
species on record. The first collectors so described it. But that home was
a very small island, where it clung to the rocks. Every plant within reach
has long since been cleared away; those remaining dwell in perilous places
on the cliffs. To gather them a man must be let down from above, or he
must risk his life in climbing from below. But under these conditions the
process of extermination still proceeds, and in a time to be counted by
months it will be complete.

In describing a few of the most precious varieties at Woodlands, I may
group them in a manner to display by contrast the striking diversities
which an orchid may assume while retaining the essential points that
distinguish it from others. One form, however, I must mention here, for it
is too common to be classed among peculiarities, yet to my mind its
colouring is the softest and most dainty of all. Petal and sepal are
'stone-colour,' warmed, one cannot say even tinged, with crimson. Nature
has no hue more delicate