98 THE ORCHID REVIEW. _ [{Juty-Aveust, 1920. 
actual origin, though it is sometimes grown both as O. maculata superba 
and as O. latifolia. It occurs in many localities where the two species grow 
together, and we have no doubt that it is a natural hybrid between them, in 
spite of the fact that it reproduces itself from seed. It is probably an 
example of a fertile hybrid, and now that Orchidsare so easily raised from 
seed, the matter might easily be tested. It is significant that a hybrid 
between O. maculata and the Madeiran O. foliosa has occurred 
spontaneously in at least three different places where the two have been 
grown together, and it is a good index of what is likely to occur in nature 
under similar circumstances. There is evidence that O. incarnata and O. 
latifolia also cross where they grow intermixed. A few experiments on the 
question would be interesting. 
** What is the precise significance of spotted leaves in the O. latifolia 
group ?”’ we are asked, and the answer is not easy. In O. maculata the 
leaves are normally spotted, but the spots are feeble when the plants 
are grown in dense shade, and absent in the albino form. In O. latifolia— 
at all events as we have long understood it—the leaves are normally un- 
spotted, as they are also in O. incarnata, and there are localities from which 
forms with spotted leaves seem to be entirely absent. Our experience is 
that where spotted leaves occur, the common O. maculata is usually 
present, and as there are other intermediate characters, we regard them as 
hybrids between the two species. If this view is correct it would exclude 
them from O. latifolia proper. Linnzus included spotted and unspotted 
forms under O. latifolia, but the existence of natural hybrids was not 
understood until long afterwards, and evidence is not wanting that 
hybridity has obscured the limits of the two species from time immemprial. 
Some would limit the name O. latifolia to the spotted form, but it is not in 
accordance with fact, and the only figure cited by Linnzus represents the 
unspotted form, which is easily recognised by the shape of the lip and the 
spotted disc. The presence of an intramarginal line in the form with 
spotted leaves is significant, because it is a normal character in O. maculata. 
There are geographical considerations which point in the same direction. 
The Algerian O. elata, the Indian O. Hatagirea, the Japanese O. aristata, 
and the Madeiran O. foliosa, all of which are closely allied, and which may 
be regarded as topographicil representatives of O. latifolia, have unspotted 
leaves. And as regards O. foliosa we have now evidence that it is kept 
true by isolation, for the natural hybrid with O. maculata has appeared 
spontaneously in three separate localities where they have been grown 
together. Hybridisation is a matter of opportunity, and its existence is 
generally question of recognition of combined or intermediate characters. 
