12 COOL ORCHID GROWING. 



amongst imported lots of L. Skinneri. The delicate little Cypri- 

 pedium niveum was bought as 0. concolor, and the lovely 

 Phalrenopsis Luddemanni was sold for P. (equestris) rosea. 

 The golden Oncidium Marshallianum was supposed to be the old 

 and well-known 0. crispum, until it flowered. Still it is " not all 

 gold that glitters," and in trusting to habit and external 

 characteristics one may be grievously disappointed, as when 

 the dusky Oncidium pubes is obtained in mistake for the 

 glorious Oncidium (sarcodes) amictum. The grandest of all 

 Oncids, 0. macranthum, closely resembles in external appear- 

 ance several other species much inferior to it in beauty. Col- 

 lectors would not be agreeably surprised were they to obtain 

 plants of the dingy-flowered Oncidium macropus instead of 

 O. macranthum ; in habit the two species are identical. The 

 same remark applies with nearly equal force to Eeichenbach's 

 striped Oncid (0. zebrinum). Dendrobes vary greatly in 

 habit, according to the conditions under which they are 

 grown. In the collection of Orchids at Fairfield, a plant of 

 D. Farmeriihad elongated bulbs, exactly like D. densiflorum, 

 being from 12 to 15 inches long, and still, when received by them, 

 it had the short, thick, quadrangular bulb, commonly met with 

 in this species. Dendrobium bigibbum is a very rare and valu- 

 able kind, but the would-be possessors of this plant must not 

 confound this and the dingy green and purple -flowered D. 

 brisbanensis, a worthless species that resembles it very closely 

 in habit. 



Oncidium splendidum resemble's the poor 0. microchilum, 

 and there are many other Orchids which closely resemble each 

 other in habit, so much so that even experienced cultivators 

 find a difficulty in distinguishing them even when in a healthy 

 condition, much less when shrivelled after importation. 

 Schomburgkia crispa and Laelia superbiens are nearly iden- 

 tical in habit, while Odontoglossum cordatum and 0. macu- 



