[Illustration: PL. 16. CATTELYA GUTTATA LEOPOLDII.]
CATTLEYA GUTTATA LEOPOLDII. [Plate 16.] Native of the Island of St. Catherine, Brazil.
Epiphytal. _Stems_ (or pseudobulbs) elongate, fusiform, many-jointed, two to two and a half feet in height, bearing a pair of leaves at the apex. _Leaves_ broadly-oblong obtuse, dark green, coriaceous. _Scape_ terminal, issuing from a short ovate acute ancipitous spathe developed between the leaves on the more vigorous stems, and bearing a many-flowered raceme, with small lance-shaped bracts. _Flowers_ fleshy, in dense racemes, “sometimes as large as a man’s head;” _sepals_ cuneate-oblong acute, the lateral ones subfalcate, of a light cinnamon or orange-tinted brown, spotted thickly with crimson; _petals_ similar in form and colour, but rather broader and wavy; _lip_ three-lobed, the lateral lobes semi-ovate, acute in front, rolled over the column, the middle lobe cuneate-flabellate and bilobed, of a bright magenta colour, the disk tuberculate with lines of elevated papillae.
Cattleya guttata Leopoldii, _Linden and Reichenbach fil._, _Pescatorea_, t. 43.
Cattleya Leopoldii, _Hort. Verschaffelt_; _Lemaire_, _Illustration Horticole_, ii. 69.
Epidendrum elatius, var., _Reichenbach fil._, _MSS._; _Id._, in _Walpers’ Annales Botanices Systematicæ_, vi. 319.
This noble plant is remarkable for the large mass of richly-coloured flagrant blossoms which terminates the flower-scape, and is very much superior to the old _Cattleya guttata_, which was introduced to our collections some fifty years ago, and of which a fine figure was published in the _Transactions of the Horticultural Society_, ix. t. 8. The variety _Leopoldii_ differs from the type, in its much larger flowers, and in the rich olive or reddish-brown colour of its sepals and petals, which are freely spotted with dark crimson. _C. guttata Leopoldii_ is, moreover, of much more recent introduction than the type, having been imported to the gardens of Belgium by M. Ambroise Verschaffelt, through his collector, M. Devos, in 1850. It was by him dedicated to his Majesty the late King of the Belgians. As will be seen from our illustration, it is a very great improvement on the typical form. We are indebted to H. Shaw, Esq., of Buxton, for the opportunity of securing our figure, the plant having flowered in his choice and valuable collection during the month of August in the present year, producing a spike of eleven fine flowers, each measuring three inches in diameter. This must be regarded as a very valuable Orchid, since it blossoms during the late summer months, when flowers are comparatively scarce in our Orchid houses; while for exhibition purposes, again, it is of great value.