ORCHID CONFERENCE. 88 



was remarkable, inasmuch as the spots assumed a bar-like 

 arrangement on the sepals. His 0. Andersonianum superb urn 

 again had buff-coloured sepals and petals, suffused with pink and 

 with dark red markings. 0. Alexandrae Bonnyana is a large, 

 broad-petalled variety, white, with pink-flushed sepals and petals, 

 the sepals only having one large cinnabar blotch situated at a 

 point about two-thirds of their length from the ovary. 



0. polyxanthurn came from several exhibitors, and at first sight 

 looks like a paler, less heavily-blotched 0. triumphans. Some, 

 however, believe it to be of hybrid origin, and 0. triumphans 

 x 0. maculaturn or 0. nebulosum have been suggested as 

 possibly its parents. 0. triumphans is a native of Peru, how- 

 ever, while 0. nebulosum is from Mexico, as is also 0. maculatum, 

 so that I prefer here to consider 0. polyxanthurn as merely a 

 geographical form of 0. triumphans. The flowers really resemble 

 typical 0. triumphans in form and size, the bases of the peri- 

 anth divisions being clear yellow, petals dotted or lined, the 

 sepals only being heavily blotched with dark red brown ; the 

 cordate lip is crimson-brown, margined with creamy yellow. 

 This description is from Mr. Duke's specimen. 



0. sceptrum reminds one of a short-perianthed form of 0. 

 luteo purpuremn, having flowers only about half the size, colour 

 yellow, blotched with brown, a native of Colombia. Mr. Lee 

 showed a pale-flowered variety. Mr. Duke had a pale form of 

 0. crispum, resembling 0. hebraicum, but the flowers were less 

 copiously spotted than is usually the case in that variety. Mr. 

 Sniee had a fine pink flowered 0. Alexandra, of which the petals 

 were profusely dotted in the centre, the sepals less so, the 

 lip being pure white with a golden crest, its lower or apical por- 

 tion being blotched with chocolate. 0. Alexandrae var. guttatum 

 seems intermediate between 0. Andersoniaum and 0. hebraicum. 

 Messrs. Sander, of St. Alban's, had a fine series of 0. crispum 

 (yellow grounds) and 0. Alexandrae (white grounds), among 

 which were many of the reputed hybrid forms. Both the yellow 

 and the white forms varied much in breadth of perianth segments, 

 and in depth, size, and variety of marking. In one variety the 

 yellow colouring matter is emphasised, or focussed, as it were, in 

 a rich golden lip-crest, while in another the red colouring comes 

 out either as blushing perianth segments, or in the form of red 

 spots or blotches. Looking at this bank of imported plants, it 

 was at once apparent that the sooner we cease naming them in 



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