ODONTOGLOSSUM ROEZLII ras. ¢ 
ODONTOGLOssUM ROEZLI, Rchb. f, Xenia Orchid, t. 183; Orch. Album, t. 64; Bot. Mag,, t. 6085; Lindenia, ii, t. 78 ; Batem., Odontoglossum, t. 30; 
Orchidophile, 1886, p.27; Foral Mag,, n. s. 90. Revue Hort, 1875, 450. Gard. Chron., 1873, p. 1303, fig. 269. Garden, July 29, 1876, p. 106; Id., Sept. 13, 
1884, p. 232. 
Valde affine Odontoglosso vexillario, Rchb. f., labello basi aristato sagittato, flabellato, apice sinuato bifido, carinula semiquadrata antice tricarunculata 
in ima basi. 
Habitus Odontoglossi vexillarii Rchb. f  Foliis lineari ligulatis inferne striis obscuris viridibus novenis ; “ pedunculus triusque sexflorus. ” Sepala 
ligulata acuta seu apiculata. Tepala sublatiora, antrorsum dilatata. Labellum descriptum siccum, basi valde velutinum. Columna brevis, Ala semiovate 
anguste. Color florum albus. Labelli basis flava. 
Icones analytica. Flos. Columna antice et a latere. Pollinaria. 
Turs is perhaps the finest Orchid discovered by the late Benedict Roezl, a most genial and kind-hearted traveller and a 
prince among collectors. The native haunts of Roezl’s Odontoglot are the hot valleys of the Dagua river in South 
America, and there and in the Cauca valley near Juntas it grows abundantly on low trees. Roezl used to tell us that where 
it grows, rain falls three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, and from this we may easily infer that it must be grown 
with us very moist indeed. He discovered it in 1872, and arrived in England with one solitary plant alive out of his 
large collection. This specimen he sold to Mr. William Bull, of Chelsea, for 75 guineas, and it flowered in December, 
1873, and received a first-class certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society of England, creating a great sensation in 
the Orchid world. Roezl was quite enthusiastic in his description of this beautiful new Odontoglossum, “a lovely flat 
flower like O. Phalzenopsis,” he said, “but with rich purple blotches at the base of the petals, and deliciously fragrant, as 
sweet,” he added, “as is your English wild rose!” Those who would like to appreciate the last remark have only to 
smell the flowers of Roezl’s Odontoglossum some balmy morning and they will assuredly recognise its delicious fragrance, 
which is different to that of any other Orchid known, Those who grow and enjoy their Orchids peacefully under a glass 
roof do not quite realise the battle that is being fought in their interests by the plant collector abroad. Slowly but 
surely every acre of the globe is being traversed by these explorers—often the only white man in a whole district as large 
as the British Isles, he plods on his way; solitary, but dauntless, he goes into the world primeval, frought as it is with 
subtle dangers, illumined as it is with surprises and charms. To return to Roezl’s beautiful “ Tooth-tongue Orchid ” 
and its allies, the flat-blossomed Odontoglots. They are sometimes called the Miltonia-flowered species, and are, so far as 
is at present known, four in number, viz., O. Phalzenopsis, O. Warscewiczii, O. vexillarium, and O. Roezlii itself. O. 
Roezlii is very beautiful, and Mr. Moon has once more proved that in some cases the brush is mightier than the pen, at 
any rate in so far as form and colour are concerned. But the fragrance to which poor Roezl alluded so fondly, the 
fatherly fondness of an introducer, no pen, no brush can describe, and scent is a thing science has nearly altogether 
ignored. There is a snowy-white form of O. Roezlii, pure white, one might say, save for the pale, lemon-coloured blotch 
on the expanded labellum. Some have called these white forms of coloured species “albinos,” but others of us look 
upon them as reversions to that earlier stage in the evolution of the species, when all the individuals were normally white. 
Some day we may hope to have explained more fully the manner in which flower colour struggles upwards from green, 
yellow, and white, through rose and purple, up to blue. This Odontoglossum likes a house the temperature of 
which never falls below 65 deg. If kept too hot and close it becomes infested with yellow thrips, and even if you allow 
the pipes to cool, which should always be done before fumigating, and use tobacco, there is a danger of its shedding its 
lower leaves. Constant syringing during their season of growth is essential. 
Our plate is from a plant in the possession of Mr, Sidney Courtauld, Braintree, Essex. 
