Since Cattleya Mossiae was introduced more than two generations ago, and remains perhaps the commonest of the species, I need not describe it. Mrs. Moss of Ottersfoot, by Liverpool, conferred the name in 1856. Love of orchids is a heritage in that family--so is the love of rowing. The lady's grandson, Sir J. Edwardes Moss, now living, was Stroke of the O.U.B.C. and at Eton, as were his father and his uncle. And the ancestral collection of orchids is still maintained.
White Mossiaes are 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.
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.