108 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
The most glorious of these things, however, is 
O. vex. superbum, a plant of the greatest rarity, 
conspicuous for its blotch of deep purple in the 
centre of the lip, and its little dot of the same on 
each wing. Doubtless this is a natural hybrid 
betwixt the Antioquia form and Odontoglossum 
Roezliz, which is its neighbour. The chance ot 
finding a bit of superbum in a bundle of the 
ordinary kind lends peculiar excitement to a sale 
of these plants. Such luck first occurred to Mr. 
Bath, in Stevens’ Auction Rooms. He paid half- 
a-crown fora very weakly fragment, brought it 
round, flowered it, and receiveda prize for good 
gardening in the shape of seventy-two pounds, 
cheerfully paid by Sir Trevor Lawrence for a 
plant unique at that time. I am reminded ot 
another little story. Among a great number of 
Cypripedium tnsigne received at St. Albans, and 
“ established,’ Mr. Sander noted one presently of 
which the flower-stalk was yellow instead of brown, 
as is usual. Sharp eyes are a valuable item of the 
orchid-grower’s stock-in-trade, for the smallest 
peculiarity among such “sportive” objects 
should not be neglected. Carefully he put 
the yellow stalk aside—the only one among 
thousands, one might say myriads, since C. zmsigne 
is one of our oldest and commonest orchids, 
