April 8, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



163 



0. tetraphylla has four leaflets instead of three to each 

 stalk; their color is much darker than in 0. Deppei, and the 

 blotch is deep brown. When the leaflets are unfolded the 

 four combine in such a way as to make a nearly perfect 

 square. The flowers are lilac, with a white centre, and, like 

 those of the other species here described, are produced in 

 abundance from June until frost appears. 



0. latifolia has flowers much like those of tetraphylla, but 

 the leaflets, which are arranged in threes, are very broad, and 

 have a deep, wide notch in their outer sides. 



0. lilacina is another species much resembling tetraphylla. 

 Its flowers are a little smaller, and a little lighter in tint, and 

 its rounded leaflets are in threes. No one who has one of 

 these needs the other, unless he desires to grow as many 

 species as possible. 



1 have two other species under the name of 0. elegans. One 

 is undoubtedly a variety, O. hirta, a South African species ; 



spring. In growing these sorts care must be taken not to 

 plant 0. tetraphylla and 0. latifolia near any other sorts, as they 

 send out subterranean runners to the distance of twelve or 

 eighteen inches, each bearing a new bulb at the tip — a habit 

 of growth which results in mixing the kinds if they are closely 

 planted. The other kinds make their new bulbs in a cluster 

 at the crown of the plant. 



All of these kinds have a translucent root, shaped like a 

 carrot. These are eaten in Mexico, but they have a disagree- 

 able smoky flavor, very unacceptable to a civilized taste. 



Canton, JJass. W. E. Etldicott. 



Odontoglossum nebulosum. 



~V\ WHETHER it is that this large-flowering species is some- 



* * what difficult to grow satisfactorily, or that it does 



not produce its handsome blooms in greater abundance, it 



does not seem to be so highly appreciated as some smaller 



Fig. 30. — View in the Pare Monceau, Paris. — See page 159. 



the other, though evidently American, being much like the 

 species already named, in time of blooming and general 

 appearance, is very unlike the true 0. elegans, which is a Peru- 

 vian species of great beauty, if we may trust the figure in the 

 Botanical Magazine. 



0. umbrosa is a very pretty species to plant in clumps or 

 lines, as its foliage is very dense and very bright and fresh in 

 color. It has no zone of brown as most of the other kinds 

 have. Its flowers are white. 



The Committee on Nomenclature of the Society of Ameri- 

 can Florists will do horticulture a service if they will stop the 

 sale of this species under the name of 0. Deppei, as is now done 

 by many dealers. 



All of the species described in this article are very suscep- 

 tible to cold ; the least frost kills the tops, and, of many 

 hundred bulbs left out over winter, not one has lived until 



kinds, and it is rarely that a good word is spoken in its favor 

 in the horticultural press. The flowers, which are borne on 

 strong erect scapes, are from two and a half to three inches 

 across, having white sepals and petals, the lower half of which 

 is decorated with chestnut-brown blotches of irregular shape, 

 and somewhat paler on the sepals ; the roundish, wavy-edged 

 lip is also white, with some large chestnut blotches in front of 

 the bright yellow, two-lobed crest, which has sometimes small 

 . red spots all over it. The pseudo-bulbs are of moderate size, 

 ovoid and flatfish, with two sharp edges, and bearing two deep 

 green lanceolate leaves, each about six to nine inches long, on 

 the summit. 



Great variation exists among the flowers, the result no doubt 

 of cultivation. In some forms the sepals and petals are large 

 and well-arranged, the chestnut blotches standing out promi- 

 nently on the white ground ; in others the segments are small 



