66 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



scent in some tropical Orchids indeed, it is an interest- 

 ing subject to consider how plants resemble each other in 

 this particular. Then there are large numbers of Orchids 

 with such delicate odours that some are unable to appre- 

 ciate them, but they are specially grateful to those who 

 detect them. Again, some Orchids have different odours 

 at different times in the day. It is not safe, therefore, to 

 declare a plant scentless unless it has been tested repeatedly 

 at different times. 



Variation in odour has been noticed. We remember 

 flowering the first Odontoglossum hebraicum, and on test- 

 ing it its odour was of cinnamon. It passed to Sir Trevor 

 Lawrence's collection, and we asked the late Mr. Spyers to 

 test the odour, and he replied that it was of Hawthorn, like 

 others of its class. He tested it several times with the same 

 result, but for some time before it passed off he reported 

 to us that it smelt exactly like cinnamon. Then there are 

 odours in Orchids about which opinions are divided as 

 to whether they are pleasant or not. Oncidium ornitho- 

 rhynchum is an example ; some like the odour of it very 

 much, while it is disagreeable to others. The same applies 

 to Anguloas, some Lycastes and Stanhopeas with strongly 

 aromatic scent, which are pleasant at a distance, but not 

 so when too closely approached. But the majority are 

 distinctly pleasant, Cattleya Dowiana and its hybrids, C. 

 Eldorado and others, being delicately fragrant. 



A very few are malodorous, Bulbophyllum Beccari not 

 being tolerable under any circumstances, the flowers smell- 

 ing like some of the Stapelias. 



