92 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
own pollen, and the first plant which flowered reproduced the varietal 
characters faithfully, while the second one reverted. to the light-coloured 
original form. 
Dendrobium nobile Cooksonianum is an abnormal variety, with the 
petals coloured somewhat as in the lip (irregular peloria). This variety 
was crossed by Mr. Cookson with D. n. nobilius, a variety with deep 
purple sepals and petals; and from the same seed capsule were raised 
both D. n. Cooksonianum and D. n. nobilius true to character, together 
with a series of reversionary forms grading down to the ordinary type of | 
D. nobile. 
On the other hand, Mr. Fred Hardy, of Ashton-on-Mersey, crossed a 
large form of the typical D. nobile with pollen of D. n. Cooksonianum, 
and, though the seedlings resulting therefrom varied considerably, not one 
had the characteristics of D. n. Cooksonianum. 
Again. Mr. Cookson crossed D. n. Cooksonianum with pollen of D. n. 
Burfordiense, the latter being a variety with the two lower sepals 
coloured like the lip, instead of the petals, as in D. n. Cooksonianum. One 
of these seedlings reproduced D. n. Burfordiense truly. 
Mr. Cookson also crossed D. n. Burfordiense with a distinct species, 
D. Findlayanum, and raised a hybrid known as D. x Cybele, Oakwood var., 
and all the plants reproduced the characteristic blotch on the lower sepals 
asin D.n. Burfordiense. (Fig. 10.) Both D. n. Cooksonianum and D. n. 
Burfordiense are technically anomalies, being cases of irregular peloria ; 
and they seem to reproduce their sportive characters in their offspring 
either wholly or not at all, there being no intermediate forms between 
them and the normal. 
D. x Cybele, Oakwood var., mentioned above, is a good illustration 
of the inheritance of varietal characters, especially when we remember 
that the typical D. nobile, crossed with D. Findlayanum, produces the 
typical D. x Cybele ; and again, when D. n. nobilius, a richly coloured 
variety of the type, is crossed with D. Findlayanum, the result is 
D. x Cybele nobilius, a correspondingly coloured variety of the typical 
hybrid. 
D. nobile crossed with D. Falconeri produces the typical D. x Venus, 
but when D. n. nobiliusis used as one parent D. x Venus magnificum 
is produced, its colour being correspondingly deeper than the type. 
D. nobile crossed with D. aureum gives the typical D. x 
Ainsworthii ; but Messrs. Veitch & Sons, of Chelsea, by using 
special varieties of each species as parents, produced D. x Ainsworthii 
splendidissimum, a greatly improved form. On the other hand, a partial 
exception may be quoted where D. n. nobilius, crossed with D. aureum, 
produced D. x Ainsworthii Edithe, a light-coloured form of D. x Ains- 
worthii splendidissimum, inheriting the form of D. n. nobilius, but not 
the colour. 
Mr. Cookson crossed the typical D. nobile with the typical D. x 
Ainsworthii, and raised a light-coloured form called D. x Apollo. 
Mr. J. Cypher, of Cheltenham, and Mr. C. Winn, of Birmingham, 
crossed D. n. nobilius with D. x Ainsworthii splendidissimum, and raised 
the correspondingly deep-coloured D. x Rubens; while the Hon. Oakes 
Ames, of Massachusetts, raised an almost identical hybrid from the 
