24 COOL ORCHID GROWING. 



SPECIFIC VARIATION AMONG ORCHIDS. 



"VVe may search through the entire vegetable kingdom' and 

 find but few classes of plants that vary more than Orchids do, 

 so far as depth and richness of colouring and the relative size 

 and shape of the flowers themselves are concerned. They 

 also vary greatly in regard to constitutional vigour, as may 

 be proved by growing a batch of newly imported plants of 

 the same species under precisely the same conditions, when 

 it will invariably be found that some grow much more 

 vigorously than others, although there were no external signs 

 of superiority to be detected amongst them, even by the most 

 experienced grower, when they were first potted. As a 

 striking illustration of their variability, I may cite the 

 lovely winter-flowering Lycaste Skinneri, which varies in 

 colour from the purest white to a very deep rosy variety, 

 having a deep crimson lip ; and this variability is equally 

 apparent in other species belonging to different genera, wliich 

 run from the typical form into the most distinct and beautiful 

 of varieties imaginable. Cattlej^as are notorious for their 

 protean variability, while the chaste Odontoglossum (crispum) 

 Alexandree — that queen of Odontoglots — is extremely variable 

 in the size and colouring of its blossoms. Phalaenopsis 

 grandiflora exists in many different forms in our collections, 

 several of which are well marked and distinct, not only in 

 the breadth of their sepals, the depth and diffusion of the 

 yellow colour on the lips, but also in the length and breadth 

 of their leaves, as well as in constitutional vigour. The same 

 remarks apply to several other species, as P. Luddemanniana, 

 P. amabilis, and P^ Schilleriana ; the latter has the most 

 robust constitution of any species in this truly superb genus, 

 and it is the only species that will subject itself to cool treat- 



