The fine genus _Cattleya_ is becoming more and more interesting and valuable every year, since many new forms and colours are continually coming before us. We feel great pleasure in being able to figure this chaste and lovely variety of _C. Skinneri_, which has pure snow white flowers. It is quite astonishing to find that white forms of so many different kinds of _Cattleya_ are being brought home by our energetic collectors. Many, indeed, have turned out to be white-flowered when we have bloomed them, without any knowledge of the fact on the part of those that have collected them, the reason being that often they do not find them in bloom, and it is, of course, difficult to know their colours unless they are in flower; moreover, it sometimes occurs that there are not many of the pure white forms. There may be others of a rosy hue, and it is frequently the case that seedlings come intermediate in colour. We hope our collectors may be fortunate enough to find pure white forms of other species in bloom, as they are so charming. The variation of colour which occurs in some of the species in their native country, is no doubt due to the intervention of insects, the action being just the same as that of the hybridizer in our plant-houses. We bloomed a very fine pure white _Cattleya Skinneri_, an imported plant, some years ago, and we have since seen several white varieties, but the figure we now publish was taken from a plant in the collection of Sir Nathaniel de Rothschild, of Tring Park. The spike, as may be seen from our plate, was a good one, with well-expanded blossoms, not quite so large as in the parent _Cattleya Skinneri_, which is of a most charming rosy purple, and one of the most distinct and showy of Orchids. There are fine varieties of this species, especially one that has been grown in collections for many years, and that we have been in the habit of exhibiting for the past 35 years—even before that there were fine specimens of it in cultivation. The species was named after the late G. Ure Skinner, Esq., who imported it from Guatemala, together with many other Orchids, and whose name will always be associated with this class of plants, many fine kinds having been named after him. _Cattleya Skinneri alba_ is an evergreen plant, with light green stems and foliage. The stems are about twelve inches high, and each produces two leaves about four inches long. The spikes proceed from an oblong sheath at the top of the stem in March and April. The sepals and petals are pure white with the throat of the lip pale yellow. It continues in bloom for two or three weeks, but it must be kept free from damp, as white flowers soon become spotted if kept in too cool and damp an atmosphere; it is always best to have a dry, warm house for plants that are in bloom, as they then last so much longer. Mr. Hill, the gardener at Tring Park, must have kept this specimen in a dry, warm house, as the flowers were most perfect when they reached us.