SPECIFIC VARIATION AMONG ORCHIDS. 25 



■ment. I would hero remark that the mere mention of the 

 breadth of a flower gives no substantial proof of its being a 

 first-class variety, since many long-petalled flimsy flowers 

 measure a good deal across, but are comparatively worthless, 

 since they lack breadth and substance in their sepals and 

 petals. 



In one of the finest collections of Phala3nopsids in this country 

 there are some twenty or thirty imported plants, which vary 

 greatly in breadth of petal and substance. Hence it becomes 

 apparent that when we purchase Orchids, we should be careful 

 to select as good varieties of them as possible. There are 

 some Orchids, too, which vary greatly, not only as has just 

 been related, but also in the length and thickness of their 

 pseudo-bulbs, and in their flowering propensities. For an 

 example of this, take La^lia majalis — the Flor de Maio of the 

 Mexican Spaniards — -of which there are two distinct varieties, 

 differing in the length of their pseudo-bulbs. The short- 

 bulbed variety blooms with tolerable regularity, while the 

 other may be grown on for years without its ever producing 

 a single flower. Mr. James Anderson, gardener to F. Daw- 

 son, Esq., of Mcadowbank, has succeeded in flowering 

 this species regularly during these last few years. It will 

 thus be seen that " good varieties " are those which bloom 

 freely, and that produce large, richly coloured flowers of good 

 substance. What, it may be asked, causes this striking 

 divergence from the normal types in different species ? We 

 can only account for diversity in colour, size, form, and con- 

 stitution by the fact that in their native habitats, where several 

 «pecies bloom in close proximity simultaneously, they are ex- 

 posed to the fertilising agency of insects, and being reproduced 

 from seed it follows that some proportion, if not all the 

 seedlings, vary as has just been stated. Everyone who has 

 raised seedlings of any class of plants will understand that 



