14 THE FLOBIST AND POMOLCGIST. [January, 



size, and fully double, and the spikes were of enormous size, and, when well 

 grown, from fifteen to eighteen inches in length. They had a nice branching 

 habit, and yielded a continuance of bloom. The purple hue was something very 

 fine indeed, and they were richly fragrant. A long experience of Continental- 

 raised Stocks has never revealed to me anything so fine as these Giant Ten 

 Weeks, especially for exhibition purposes. 



Not less attractive or useful are the Pyramidals. Of these there are three 

 distinct colours, viz., scarlet, violet, and azure blue, the latter being the nearest 

 approach to a blue Stock I have ever seen. Many persons to whom I have sent 

 seeds of this variety, and who have grown it, concur in praising highly its beautiful 

 hue of colour. No strain of German Stocks that I have ever seen is more con- 

 tinuous in blooming than these English Pyramidals ; they yield a great succes- 

 sion of side-shoots that supply flowers till frost or damp destroys the plants. 



There is yet one other good feature about these Stocks, and that is the large 

 per-centage of double flowers the seed produces. It is often urged against 

 English-saved Stocks that they do not produce a sufficient quantity of double 

 flowers. In respect to those under notice, the objection fails in both instances, 

 and those of the readers of The Flosist and Pomologist who cultivate Stocks 

 should endeavour by all means to secure some seed of these very fine and strik- 

 ing English strains. Quo. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM NEBULOSUM. 



Op HE culture of this fine species is only beginning to be understood. Time 

 vi&P was when the few plants that existed in collections in this country were 

 V^rX lean, wrinkled, and in every way ill-favoured. The pseudobulbs showed 

 *^) an immaturity betokening constitutional weakness, totally incapacitating 

 the plants for throwing up an inflorescence of a characteristic kind. When to 

 this is added, that an indifferent and incorrect mode of cultivation superinduced 

 an evanescent flowering season, the only consolations remaining for those who may 

 have purchased the plants at high prices, were the rarity of the prize, and the 

 future hope of being able to improve its condition. 



Times alter ; and in the general onward march, orchid culture, in not a few 

 instances, can count several steps upwards. In the case of this, as of most other 

 Odontoglots, the success may be mainly attributed to the cool cultural system ; but 

 with this must be ranked the quantities that have been introduced in modern 

 times, and the consequent greater inducement to undertake a series of contrasting 

 experiments. I had always an idea that moderately cool treatment was the prin- 

 cipal point in any calendar of operations, but it is only recently that I have been 

 converted to the notion that greenhouse treatment is decidedly and absolutely the 

 best for Odontoglossum nebulosum. I was tardy in believing Mr. Stuart Low 

 when he wrote to me that his collector found quantities of this plant covered with 

 hoar frost, but I resolved that it was a wrinkle worthy of noting and experi- 



