Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.21567
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    ‘Laelia majalis’

    Date
    1840
    Creator
    Maxim Gauci (1774 - 1854, Italian) , Lithographer
    Paul Gauci (British) , Printer
    Creator - Organisation
    J Ridgway & Sons, Publisher
    After
    Augusta Innes Withers (1792 - 1877, British) , Illustrator
    Object type
    Library reference
    26846
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 580mm
    width (print): 430mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Botany
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Botanical illustration of Laelia majalis or the Mayflower orchid. Depicting a specimen with a cluster of pseudo-bulbs rooted to a branch, some are shown with a papery membrane and some with a pair of green leaves. A single upright scape bearing three large pink striped flowers issues from the base of the bulbs. The petals are folded back and the lip has three lobes with the top folded around the column, white with pink edges and speckled with a deeper mauve. A detail of the lip can be seen in the lower left-hand corner.

    Inscribed ‘Pl.23, Mrs Withers delt. LAELIA MAJALIS M. Gauci, lith. Pubd. by J Ridgway & Sons, 169 Piccadilly, Septr. 1840. Printed by P. Gauci.’

    Plate 23 fromThe Orchidaceae of Mexico & Guatemala by James Bateman (London, 1843).

    James Bateman (1811-1897), British horticulturalist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1838.
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