The Orchids of Mexico and Guatemala

Encouraged and assisted by his father in his botanical proclivities, Bateman sent out to Demerara at the end of I833 a botanical collector named Colley, chiefly to search for orchids. About sixty species reached this country alive, of which a third were new. One of these was given the name Batemannia Colleyi by Dr. Lindley, thus commemorating at once both employer and collector. Bateman contributed an account of the expedition, based on Colley's report, to London's Gardeners' Magazine for 1835. In I834 he became acquainted with G. Ure Skinner, a merchant living in Guatemala, who sent him many living orchids. In less than ten years the finest orchids of Guatemala were in cultivation in England, having first flowered at Knypersley.

His Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, perhaps the greatest botanical book in point of size ever published, was issued in parts from I837 to 1843, It consists of forty elephant folio plates, with descriptions and cultural hints, besides numerous sketches by Cruikshank.