not uncommon, though their exquisite beauty makes them
precious in all meanings of the term.

_Mrs. R. H. Measures_ is best of all--a famous variety--white of sepal and
petal. Deep and graceful frilling on the lip is always characteristic of
this species; it reaches absolute perfection here. The yellow of the
throat is much subdued, but purple lines issuing from it spread over all
the white lip, with a very curious effect. Purple also is the frilling.

_Grandiflora._--Deep rose. Petals very broad, lip immense, finely mottled
and veined with purple.

_Excelsior._--Blush-rose. Lip rosy purple, with a white margin.

_Gilbert Measures._--A superb variety. White with a faint flush. Sepals
and petals unusually solid. Lip very widespread, with purple lines and
splashes of magenta-purple.

_Gigantea._--Biggest of all. Rosy pink. The orange of the enormous lip and
the frilling specially fine.

Catt. Wageneri, though granted a specific title, is a variety of Cattleya
Mossiae, from Caracas, discovered by Wagener in 1851; white, excepting a
yellow blotch on the lip.

From the roof, among a hundred smaller plants of Cattleya, hangs a
specimen of Laelia praestans alba, as rare as lovely--all purest white,
except the lip of brilliant purple with yellow throat. Like many other
orchids from the high lands of Brazil, this will grow equally well in the
cool house. It is, in truth, a variety of L. pumila; its normal colour
rosy purple.

CATTLEYA GASKELLIANA

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 mauv