Cattleya labiata Warneri Reichenbach f.
Reichenbachia Vol I. Series I. (1886.)
The form shown on the lithograph is considered to be the type of this highly variable species

Cattleya labiata (Lindley (1821.)

Cattleya labiata 'Warneri' forma coerulea

   As that is mentioned quite often in the orchid literature, the first Cattleya labiata specimens cultivated in Britain arrived from Brazil as packaging material used to fill up in transit the boxes containing other plants considered to have medical, horticultural or other business potential.


   Plant collectors, including Swainson were professional enough to know that the plant actually sent may have business potential - it is anything but sure that the sender considered Cattleya labiata to be something uninteresting.


   At that time, given the long travelling time by sailboats, collectors tried to send large, old specimens of plants.


  As a rule of thumb, eight growths were considered to be the minimum size, from which hopefully one growth, bulb or other propagating material will indeed arrive alive say from South America to Britain.


   That is, the efficiency was hardly more tha ten percent or, to put it otherwise, losses often amounted to nearly ninety percent of the total. This explains the high prices of orchids and other tropical plants in Europe - as well as the horrible effects large-scale overcollecting had on small, localized populations of rare orchids.


   In the light what is above, probably the first specimens of Cattleya labiata sent as "packaging filler" were less than eight growths divisions, i. e. too small to be saleable promptly on arrival in Europe.


  To put these considerations into the proper perspective: Sander, the "Orchid King" once ordered that the end of one of his greenhouses be demolished in order to make possible to take in a Cattleya intermedia colony consisting of more than one thousand and five hundred growths!


  The perhaps several hundred years old orchid colony had over seventeen feet, that is, more than five metres circumference.


   It was sold undivided to a customer at the never-heard-of sum of seventy-five pound sterling - more than two years per capita income of Sander's garden staff ...

Vanda Sanderiana Reichenbach f. (1882.)
Reichenbachia Volume I. Series I (1886.)
The currently valid name is
Euanthe sanderiana (Rchb. f.) Schlechter (1914.)

Cypripedium sanderianum Reichenbach f. ( 1886.)
Gardener's Chronicle XXV., p. 554. ( 1886 )
Currently valid name:
Paphiopedilum sanderianum (Reichenbach f.) Stein (1892.)

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