1869. ] 



ODONTOGLOSSUM NEBULOSUM. 



15 



meriting upon. We have dozens of the plant at Meadow Bank growing as cool as 

 possible in summer, and very nearly so in winter, for the thermometer at the 

 minimum has actually during this and last season been so low as 33° Fahr., so 

 that if the hoar frost has not actually reached them, it was hovering in what I 

 should once have considered very dangerous proximity to them. As to their 

 present condition, we have nothing healthier in the place, and they are prolific of 

 successional racemes, yielding from three to eight flowers, according to the kind, 

 or to the vigour of the various specimens. I think I have promulgated in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, in some of my papers on Orchid Culture, and which at spare 

 moments I intend to continue, that the foliage of Odontoglossum nebulosum was 



yellowish green, and that it could never be cultivated otherwise. It is a decided 

 mistake, a wrong averment ; for we have them — not quite as green as the Scotch 

 leek, but quite as much so as any of the family. Cool treatment has induced 

 this, and has brought such a constitutional vigour as I little dreamed of, and 

 which, if I had seen in any establishment two years ago, would have tickled my 

 fancy, and caused my eyes to twinkle, quite as much as the sight of them did 

 those of Mr. James Veitch, judging from his physiognomy, and noting his exclama- 

 tion. So much for cool treatment, and its healthful influences. 



The varieties are now numerous, the engraving being an excellent representa- 

 tion of what might be called the type. The spotting is confined to the base of the 

 sepals and petals, and extends over the greater portion of the labellum. There are 

 some having pure white sepals and petals and a chocolate-spotted lip on a white 

 ground, such as was once exhibited by Mr. Day at the Eoyal Horticultural, and 



