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Updated: June 17, 2025
"No cattleya, then, to-night?" he asked, "and I've been looking forward so to a nice little cattleya." But she was irresponsive; saying nervously: "No, dear, no cattleya tonight. Can't you see, I'm not well?" "It might have done you good, but I won't bother you." She begged him to put out the light before he went; he drew the curtains close round her bed and left her.
On certain evenings she would suddenly resume towards him a kindness of which she would warn him sternly that he must take immediate advantage, under penalty of not seeing it repeated for years to come; he must instantly accompany her home, to "do a cattleya," and the desire which she pretended to have for him was so sudden, so inexplicable, so imperious, the kisses which she lavished on him were so demonstrative and so unfamiliar, that this brutal and unnatural fondness made Swann just as unhappy as any lie or unkind action.
"That's your business, sir," he laughed. "Could I often get an established plant of Cattleya Mossiæ in flower for 4s.?" I asked. "Give me the order, and I'll supply as many as you are likely to want within a month." That was a revelation; and I tell the little story because I know it will be a revelation to many others.
But Cattleya labiata vera never fails, and an interesting question it is to resolve why this alone should be so carefully protected. One may cautiously surmise that its habitat is even damper than others'. In the next place, some plants have their leaves red underneath, others green, and the flower-sheath always corresponds; this peculiarity is shared by C. l. Warneri alone.
And meanwhile I was laboriously and impatiently gathering some comprehension of the ordinary plants. It was accident which broke the spell of ignorance. Visiting Stevens' Auction Rooms one day to buy bulbs, I saw a Cattleya Mossiæ, in bloom, which had not found a purchaser at the last orchid sale. A lucky impulse tempted me to ask the price. "Four shillings," said the invaluable Charles.
He turned upon his heel and left the orchid-house, and as soon as he was gone the new head-gardener stood watching him till he was out of hearing, and then, doubling up his fist, he struck out from the shoulder at one of the offending pots standing at a corner a lovely mauve-tinted cattleya in full blossom and sent it flying to shivers upon the floor.
The first name that arises to most people in thinking of warm orchids is Cattleya, and naturally. The genus Odontoglossum alone has more representatives under cultivation. Sixty species of Cattleya are grown by amateurs who pay special attention to these plants; as for the number of "varieties" in a single species, one boasts forty, another thirty, several pass the round dozen.
Every step must be cut to advance, and the ground cleared below the high trees in order to spy the branches. It is a very difficult job. Nature has well protected this Cattleya.... Nobody can like this kind of work." The poor man ends abruptly, "I will write when I can the mosquitos don't leave me a moment."
So, taking station at Manaos upon the Amazons, we find, to eastward, Cattleya superba, to westward C. Eldorado, and in the midst C. Brymeriana, which, it is safe to assume, represents the union of the two; for that matter, the theory will very soon be tested, for M. Alfred Bleu has "made the cross" of C. superba and C. Eldorado, and its flower is expected with no little interest.
When a Cattleya or Loelia of the single-leaf section is crossed with one of the two-leaf, some of the offspring, from the same capsule, show two leaves, others one only; and some show one and two alternately, obeying no rule perceptible to us at present. So it is with the charming Loelia Maynardii from L. Dayana × Cattleya dolosa, just raised by Mr.
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