out to you is that Catt. Lawrenceana is
very rare in the interior now.... If you want to get any Lawrenceana you
will have to send yourself, and, as I said to you, the results will be
very doubtful.'

The variety _Macfarlanei_ has rosy pink sepals; petals of club shape,
bowed, crimson, deepening towards the tips. Labellum long, narrow, all
crimson of the darkest shade.

Noteworthy is a plant which we may suppose a natural hybrid of L.
purpurata with L. elegans, resembling the latter in size, comparatively
small, as in its narrow sepals and petals flushed with rose. The lip is
very bright and pretty, with large clear yellow throat, ringed with white;
the disc, of lively crimson, has a purple margin finely frilled, and a
whitish purple patch in front.

Among miscellaneous examples here is a handsome specimen of Cymbidium
Devonianum, and a very remarkable hybrid of Catt. Gaskelliana x Catt.
Harrisoniae--_Mary Measures_; rather ghostly but pleasant to look upon.
Its colour of sepal and petal is palest mauve, the tube prettily lined and
mottled with pale yellow; labellum, gamboge-yellow in the throat, fading
towards the edge, and a pale crimson tip.

A STORY OF BRASSAVOLA DIGBYANA

Brassavola Digbyana is a flower for all tastes--large, stately, beautiful,
and supremely curious; I use the familiar name, though it should be Laelia
Digbyana. Charming are the great sepals and petals, greenish white, around
the snowy lip; but why, the thoughtful ask in vain, does that lip ravel
out into a massive fringe, branched and interlacing, near an inch wide?
The effect is lovely, but the purpose inscrutable. In Dendrobium
Brymerianum we find a puzzle exactly similar. But it does not help us to
understand. Countless are the species of Dendrobium, many those of Laelia;
but in each case no other shows this peculiarity.

Brassavola Digbyana was first sent to Europe in 1845 by the Governor of
British Honduras, who named it in honour of his kinsman, Lord Digby. Once
only had the plant been received since that time, so far as I can learn,
until last year. But the second cargo, in 1879, 'went a very long way.'
Messrs. Stevens have rarely been so embarrassed with treasures. The
history of that prodigious consignment is worth recording.

It was despatched by Messrs. Brown, Ponder, and Co., of Belize, who dealt
in mahogany and logwood--do still, I hope. That trade appears to be rather
interesting. The merchant keeps a gang of Caribs,