ORCHID CONFERENCE. 33 



obtained by the last-named hybridiser from Phaius grandifoliiis 

 and Calanthe Veitchii. These are entitled to be called bigeneric 

 crosses. In one of the cases only a single plant was raised, and 

 in each of the other two the number was very restricted. It is a 

 curious fact, too, that in habit, aspect, and in other respects the 

 progeny is well-nigh intermediate between the two parents, being 

 neither quite evergreen like phaius, nor deciduous like calanthe. 



Masdevallias were taken in hand at an early date, but failures 

 were frequent, caused probably by the fact that masdevallia, as a 

 genus, is far more heterogenous than was at first supposed, 

 whence a mixture of the different sections may not possibly be 

 effected. M. Chelsoni was at length raised from M. amabilis x 

 M. Veitchiana ; then M. Fraseri from M. ignea x M. Lindeni, by 

 Mr. Fraser, of Derncleugh, Aberdeen, but the seedlings were 

 reared by us ; aod lastly, M. Gairiana from M. Veitchiana x M. 

 Davisii. Capsules have been obtained from M. Veitchiana- x M. 

 infracta, M. polysticta x M. tovarensis, M. Harry ana x M. Veitch- 

 iana, and a few others, but all attempts to intermix M. chimara 

 and its allies with the brilliant -flowered species have proved 

 fruitless. 



Great as is the difficulty of raising seedlings from Orchids 

 requiring a high temperature for their cultivation, it is still 

 greater in the case of those that receive " cool treatment," if we 

 except masdevallia. Odontoglossum affords a striking instance 

 of this, paradoxical as it may seem, especially as so many 

 undoubted natural hybrids between different species of this genus 

 have appeared among the importations of the last ten years. 

 Numerous crosses between various species, both Mexican and 

 New Granadian, have been effected, and capsules with apparently 

 good seed have been produced, but with the utmost care that 

 could be bestowed no progeny has yet been raised. Mr. Cookson, 

 of Newcastle, has, indeed, stated in The Garden, of February 10th, 

 1883, that he succeeded in raising a fine lot of odontoglossum 

 seedlings, of which the pollen parent was 0. crispum and the seed 

 parent either 0. gloriosum or 0. Uro-Skinneri, but which he was 

 not quite sure. He has since informed us that all of them have 

 perished. And so with the miltonias, usually classed with 

 odontoglossum, and grown in an average higher temperature, as 

 (exillanum, Ewzlii, and phalcenopsis. The only seedlings we have 

 been able to raise were obtained from a cross between the two 



