The Woodlands Orchids, Described and Illustrated

C. × Mariottiana (Catt. Eldorado × Catt. gigas). – Very pretty, dark rose, lip bright crimson with yellow throat.

L. × splendens (L. crispa × L. purpurata). – Pink. Lip crimson-purple, edged with white, heavily fringed.

C. × Atalanta (Catt. Leopoldii × Catt. Warcewiczii). – Large and waxy. Sepals and petals rose veined with crimson, lip bright magenta.

L. – C. excellens (Catt. gigas ocullata × L. purpurata Brysiana). – A superb flower, very large, rosy mauve, lip crimson.

L. – C. Amazon (Catt. maxima × L. purpurata). – Sepals and petals softly flushed, lip much darker in tone, veined with crimson.

C. × Prince of Wales (Catt. fimbriata × Catt. Wageneri). – White. The lip amethyst, veined with rose and frilled; throat golden.

C. × Kienastiana (Catt. Luddemanniana × Catt. aurea). – Sepals flushed white, petals warm lilac, the veins paler; magenta lip with shadings of orange and lilac towards the edge and a white margin.

L. – C. Hon. Mrs. Astor (Catt. Gaskelliana × L. xanthina). – Sepals clear yellow, petals white with a sulphur tinge; throat golden yellow veined with purple, disc rose, veined with crimson and edged with lilac.

L. – C. Broomfieldensis (Catt. aurea-chrysotoxa × L. pumila Dayana). – Mauve. The lip deep crimson, gracefully frilled; the throat has crimson and gold markings on a purple ground.

C. × Fowleri (Catt. Leopoldii × Catt. Hardyana). – Rosy lilac, lip crimson. The side lobes are white tipped with crimson.

C. × Miss Measures (Catt. speciosissima × Catt. velutina). – Pretty mauve-pink with darker lines. Golden throat, lip crimson veined with purple.

C. × William Murray (Catt. Mendelii × Catt. Lawrenceana). – Rosy with a purple tinge. Throat veined with orange and purple, lip purple-crimson.

L. – C. C. – G. Roebling (L. purpurata alba × Catt. Gaskelliana). – Sepals and petals flushed, lip deepest violet, suffused with crimson and edged with white.

L. – C. D. S. Brown (Catt. Trianae × L. elegans). – Soft pink, throat yellow with a brownish tinge, lip carmine-crimson.

L. – C. Mardellii fascinator (L. elegans Turneri × Catt. speciosissima). – Mauve. Throat yellow, darkening to orange in front, lip purple-crimson.

L. – C. callistoglossa (L. purpurata × Catt. gigas). – Sepals pale rosy mauve, petals darker. Throat yellow streaked with purple; lip purple.

L. – C. callistoglossa ignescens (Catt. gigas × L. purpurata). – Sepals rosy lilac, petals a deeper shade, lip glowing purple.

L. × Latona (L. purpurata × L. cinnabarina). – Pale orange. Lip whitish at the base, the disc crimson bordered with orange.

L. – C. Decia (L. Perrinii × Catt. aurea). – Pale violet, deepening towards the tips. Lip crimson, streaked with white on the side lobes, with white and rosy purple on the disc.

L. – C. Eudora (Catt. Mendelii × L. purpurata). – Rosy purple. Lip deepest crimson shaded with maroon.

L. – C. Eudora alba (L. purpurata alba × Catt. Mendelii). – Ivory white. Lip crimson with purple shadings.

L. – C. Hippolyta (Catt. Mossiae × L. cinnabarina). – Bright orange with a rosy purplish tinge. The lip red-purple, much frilled.

L. – C. Zephyra (Catt. Mendelii × L. xanthina). – All Nankin yellow except the crimson disc, which has a pale margin.

L. – C. Amesiana (L. crispa × Catt. maxima). – White washed with amethyst. Lip purple-crimson fading towards the margin.

L. – C. Exoniensis (Catt. Mossiae × L. crispa). – White flushed with rosy mauve. Lip purple-crimson.

L. × Yula (L. cinnabarina × L. purpurata). – Scarcely larger than cinnabarina, bright orange, the petals veined and flushed with crimson. The lip of size proportionate – that is, small – shows more of the purpurata influence in its bright crimson disc.

L. × Yula inversa (L. purpurata × L. cinnabarina). – The same parentage but transposed. More than twice as large as the other and spreading, but thin. Sepals of the liveliest orange, petals agreeably tinged with purple. On the long narrow lip this pink shade deepens almost to red. Upon the whole, neither of them is to be commended for its own sake, but the brilliant orange of cinnabarina is retained so perfectly that both will prove valuable for hybridising.

C. × Our Queen (Catt. Mendelii × unknown). – Sepals and petals white, faintly flushed. In the throat, of brightest yellow, are several brown lines. The upper part of the lip is crimson, the disc purple.

L. – C. Empress of India (L. purpurata Brysiana × Catt. Dowiana). – Sepals and petals rose, tinged with violet at the ends, lip large, spreading, of the richest crimson-purple.

L. – C. Leucoglossa (Catt. Loddigesii × L. – C. fausta). – Rose-pink. Lip white, touched with yellow in the throat.

L. – C. Henry Greenwood (L. – C. Schilleriana × Catt. Hardyana). – Sepals and petals cream-coloured, tinged with pink, the latter veined with rosy purple. Lip purple with yellow throat.

L. – C. Canhamiana (Catt. Mossiae × L. purpurata). – White tinged with mauve. Lip crimson-purple, with a narrow white margin, crisped.

L. – C. Pallas superba (L. crispa × Catt. aurea). – Dark rose. Lip purple in the throat, golden in the disc, finely striped with crimson.

C. × Wendlandiana (Catt. Bowringiana × Catt. gigas). – Bright soft rose, lip purple-crimson with two yellow ‘eyes’ beneath the tube.

C. × Cecilia (Catt. Lawrenceana × Catt. Trianae). – Sepals and petals deep violet, throat buff changing to violet, disc purple.

C. × Louis Chaton (Catt. Trianae × Catt. Lawrenceana – the same parentage as Cecilia but reversed). – A most successful combination. Fine in shape, petals soft rosy mauve, sepals paler, and superb crimson lip, with the yellow of Trianae strongly expressed in the throat.

C. O’Brieniana.– A natural hybrid of Catt. Loddigesii and Catt. Walkeriana apparently; pale mauve; lip yellow.

L. – C. Miss Lily Measures (L. – C. Arnoldiana × Gottoiana). – Very large. Sepals and petals dark rose; lip rosy purple.

L. – C. velutino-elegans (Catt. velutina × L. elegans). – Sepals and petals white with a yellow tinge, veined with rose. At the throat an orange blotch. Lip darkest crimson with white veins.

I append a list of hybrid seedlings which have not yet flowered and therefore have received no name as yet. It will be useful only to those who practise the fascinating art of Hybridisation. But such are a multitude already, and each year their numbers swell.

Beyond the hybrids are twenty plants of white Cattleya intermedia. The owner of our collection was first among mortals, in Europe at least, to behold that marvel of chaste loveliness. Mr. Sander received a plant of intermedia from Brazil, which the collector labelled ‘white.’ Albino Cattleyas were few then, and Roezl alone perhaps ventured to imagine that every red species had a white sister. So they took little notice of the label at St. Albans. When Mr. Measures paid a visit, it was even shown to him as an example of the reckless statements forwarded by collectors. He, however, in a sporting mood, offered ten guineas, and Mr. Sander gladly accepted, but under a written proviso that he guaranteed nothing at all. And in due time Cattleya intermedia Parthenia appeared, to astonish and delight the universe. Several other albino forms have turned up since, all of which are represented here, but Parthenia remains the finest – snowy white, with a very long lip, which scarcely expands beyond the tube. That is to say, ‘the books’ describe it as snowy white. A careful observer will remark the faintest possible tinge of purple in the throat.

We have also a natural hybrid, Catt. Louryana, which the learned dubiously assign to intermedia alba × bicolor; all white saving the lip, which is mauve-pink with darker lines.

Among other albino rarities here is the charming L. praestans alba, pure as snow but for a plum-coloured edging round the upper portion of the lip.

L. Perrinii alba– stainless throughout. This exquisite variety also appeared for the first time in our collection.

L. Perrinii nivea– not less beautiful assuredly, though it has the imperfection, as an albino, of a pale pink labellum and a yellow throat.

Beyond these rise twenty-five stately plants of Angraecum sesquipedale, which we are learning to call Aeranthus sesquipedalis. There are those who do not value the marvel, though none but the blind surely can fail to admire it. In truth, like other giants, it does not readily lend itself to any useful purpose. I think I could design a wreath of Angraecum sesquipedale which would put jewelled coronets to shame; but for a bouquet or for the dress or for table decoration, it is equally unsuited. Wherefore the ladies give a glance of wonder at its ten-inch ‘tail’ and pass by, calling it, as I have heard with my own ears, a vegetable starfish. At Woodlands happily there are other flowers enough for a ‘regiment of women,’ as John Knox rudely put it, and they do not grudge the room which these noble plants occupy.

A LEGEND OF MADAGASCAR

I must not name the leading personage in this sad story. Though twenty-five years have gone by since he met his fate, there are still those who mourn for him. Could it be supposed that my report would come to the knowledge of two among them, old people dwelling modestly in a small French town, I should not publish it. For they have never heard the truth. Those kindly and thoughtful comrades of Alcide Lebœuf – so to name him – who transmitted the news of his death, described it as an accident. But the French Consul at Tamatave sent a brief statement privately to the late Mr. Cutter, of Great Russell Street, in whose employ Lebœuf was travelling, that he might warn any future collectors.

M. Leon Humblot has told how he and his brother once entertained six guests at Tamatave; within twelve months he alone survived. So deadly is that climate. Alcide Lebœuf was one of the six, but he perished by the hand of man. The poor fellow was half English by blood, and wholly English by education. His father, I believe, stuffed birds and sold ‘curiosities’ at a small shop in the East End. At an early age the boy took to ‘collecting’ as a business. He travelled for Mr. Cutter in various lands, seeking rare birds and insects, and he did his work well, though subject to fits of hard drinking from time to time.

At the shop in Great Russell Street, after a while, he made acquaintance with that admirable collector Crossley, whose stories of Madagascar fired his imagination. Mr. Cutter was loath to send out a man of such unsteady character. The perils of that awful climate were not so well understood, perhaps, twenty-five years ago, but enough was known to make an employer hesitate. Crossley had been shipwrecked on the coast, had lived years with the natives, learned their language, and learned also to adopt their habits while journeying among them. But Lebœuf would not be daunted. A giant in stature – over seven feet, they say – of strength proportionate, not inexperienced in wild travel but never conscious of ache or pain, he mocked at danger. When Crossley refused to take an untried man into the swamps of Madagascar, he vowed he would go alone. That is, indeed, the most fascinating of all lands to an enthusiast even now, when we are assured that the Epyornis, the mammoth of birds, is extinct. At that time there was no good reason to doubt the unanimous assertion of the natives that it still lived. Crossley was so confident that he neglected to buy eggs badly shattered, waiting for perfect specimens. His scruples were ‘bad business’ for Mr. Cutter, as that gentleman lived to see, but they appeared judicious at the time. Fragments of Epyornis egg, slung on cords, were the vessels generally used in some parts for carrying water – are still perhaps. Besides this, endless marvels were reported, some of which have been secured in these days. Briefly, the young man was determined to go, and Mr. Cutter gave him a commission.