444 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [AuGUST, 1922. 
DISA JULIA A. STUCKEY. 
ESSRS. Flory & Black showed an interesting series of their hybrid 
Disas at the R.H.S. Meeting held on July t1th, their latest and 
best production being given the above name in compliment to Miss Julia 
A. Stuckey, Unley Park, S. Australia. An instructive article on exporting 
Orchids from England to Australia appeared in our June number, written 
by this lady, and readers will appreciate the enthusiasm of this far-away 
amateur, who, despite a climate that may vary 40 degrees in 24 hours and 
may climb to 104° Fahr. in the shade, has remained for many years constant 
to her devotion to Orchids, and has made many attempts to establish what 
we call “cool” Orchids, including Disas, under such forbidding temperature 
conditicns as she describes. 
The Disas shown were Luna, Black, Italia and the above. Lunaisa 
hybrid between racemosa and Veitchii, the latter a cross between 
grandiflora and racemosa, thus the primary hybrid from which all the others 
have sprung. Veitchii was flowered by Messrs. Jas. Veitch & Sons in 1891 
and Luna in 1902. Luna proved to be a free-growing plant having, when 
strong, upwards of a dozen flowers of a rose-purple tint, and Messrs. 
Flory & Black conceived the idea of recrossing this with grandiflora so as 
to obtain a vigorous plant with flowers approaching the colour and substance 
of that fine species, yet with the floriferousness of Luna. The result of this 
cross was Blackii, a flower of enhanced size and deepened colour, but not 
yet the colour sought for. Much of the constitution of Luna is retained in 
this plant, and the number of flowers borne on each spike much the same. 
Still in pursuit of the fine qualities of grandiflora, Blackii was in turn 
crossed with that species, the result being Italia, a flower with more of the 
fine substance of grandiflora and pink shades of colour, and still retaining 
much of the vegetative habit of the earlier Luna, but with the purplish mark- 
ings on the leaf and flower-stalk indicative of grandiflora. The previous 
hybrids had remained perfectly green, with an odd exception in Blackii. So 
far, there has been a steady advance towards a scarlet Disa hybrid. 
D. Italia was crossed with grandiflora in 1g18, and the result of 
this is Disa Julia A. Stuckey. This is a strikingly beautiful flower. The 
lower sepals are a brilliant carmine-red, the upper sepal clear pink veined 
with crimson; the arch of the petals is sulphur-yellow and their lower 
halves carmine. 
It will be observed that there are only two species in all these hybrids: 
racemosa with the many rose-purple small flowers of delicate texture, and 
grandiflora with the few scarlet large flowers of thick texture. The object 
of obtaining a ‘‘ grandiflora” with the free flowering qualities of racemos# 
or Luna can hardly be determined yet, as this hybrid is flowering for the 
