stablished about 1818, or at least its immediate parent--for no
seedling has been raised to public knowledge.[4]

In avowing a certain indifference to Cattleyas, I referred to the bulk,
of course. The most gorgeous, the stateliest, the most imperial of all
flowers on this earth, is _C. Dowiana_--unless it be _C. aurea_, a
"geographical variety" of the same. They dwell a thousand miles apart at
least, the one in Colombia, the other in Costa Rica; and neither occurs,
so far as is known, in the great intervening region. Not even a
connecting link has been discovered; but the Atlantic coast of Central
America is hardly explored, much less examined. In my time it was held,
from Cape Camarin to Chagres, by independent tribes of savages--not
independent in fact alone, but in name also. The Mosquito Indians are
recognized by Europe as free; the Guatusos kept a space of many hundred
miles from which no white man had returned; when I was in those parts,
the Talamancas, though not so unfriendly, were only known by the report
of adventurous pedlars. I made an attempt--comparatively spirited--to
organize an exploring party for the benefit of the Guatusos, but no
single volunteer answered our advertisements in San Jose de Costa Rica;
I have lived to congratulate myself on that disappointment. Since my day
a road has been cut through their wilds to Limon, certain luckless
Britons having found the money for a railway; but an engineer who
visited the coast but two years ago informs me that no one ever wandered
into "the bush." Collectors have not been there, assuredly. So there may
be connecting links between _C. Dowiana_ and _C. aurea_ in that vast
wilderness, but it is quite possible there are none.

Words could not picture the glory of these marvels. In each the scheme
of colour is yellow and crimson, but there are important modifications.
Yellow is the ground all through in _Cattleya aurea_--sepals, petals,
and lip; unbroken in the two former, in the latter superbly streaked
with crimson. But _Cattleya Dowiana_ shows crimson pencillings on its
sepals, while the ground colour of the lip is crimson, broadly lined and
reticulated with gold. Imagine four of these noble flowers on one stalk,
each half a foot across! But it lies beyond the power of imagination.

_C. Dowiana_ was discovered by Warscewicz about 1850, and he sent home
accounts too enthusiastic for belief. Steady-going Britons utterly
refused to credit such a marvel--his few