298 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [OcToBER, 1922. 
The plant was acquired by Mr. Norman C. Cookson, who showed it at the 
Royal Horticultural Society on February roth, 1903, and. refused. an. offer 
of £1,500 from the same» amateur who discarded it at ten shillings. On 
May 31st, 1904,-at) Mr..Cookson’s sale, two bulbs were bought by Mr. F. 
Peeters for 640 guineas. 
O. crispum Graireanum, which became a password among crispums, was 
acquired by Mr. N. C. Cookson, who sold two bulbs and a lead at his sale 
of duplicates, May 29th, 1906, for goo guineas. This variety is one of the 
almost solid coloured forms that area “self,” with a narrow white margin. 
It had also a most peculiar sheen of other colour running through it and 
extremely like some of the shades seen in present-day hybrids. O. crispum 
Franz Masereel was one of the great crispums.. The spike was sent to the 
Royal Horticultural Society, November 13th, 1894, and received a First- 
class Certificate. Its wonderful colour, which almost covered the whole 
flower, was at that time an eye-opener. M. Jules Hye de Crom bought it 
for £480. Later on, Mr. Norman C. Cookson acquired the majority of the 
stock, and in his sale of duplicates on May 31st, 1904, a plant of one bulb 
and two small leads fell to Mr. Warburton for 570 guineas. O. crispum 
Leonard Perfect became a crispum of great renown. It was bloomed by 
Mr. R. Brooman-White, and purchased by Mr. Sander, who showed it at 
the Temple Show, May 29th, 1906. It was subsequently purchased by the 
Earl of Tankerville and Mr. N. C. Cookson in parts. On March 12th, 1907, 
a plant was ‘knocked down” at Messrs. Protheroe & Morris’s Rooms for 
700 guineas. 
It was over a period of twenty years that crispums reigned supreme in 
values, from apiatum’s day of April 19th, 1886, to Pittianum’s day of March 
22nd, 1906. Baron Schréder purchased both plants on these days at 160 
and 1,150 guineas respectively. There was no one who took a keener 
interest in and who had a greater love for blotched crispums than he. The 
Odontoglossums at The Dell were always being added to, and the list of fine 
varieties then was a very long one indeed. The Temple Show week sales 
of 1906 were the end of the great crispum boom. On March 12th, 1997» 
the Earl of Tankerville had a sale of duplicates at which it was evident 
that the hybridist had shown he had learnt how to raise blotched crispums 
at last, for there was a heavy reduction in values all round. The Temple 
week of the following year further proved this, for a plant of O. crispum 
Fearnley Sander in Mr. Cookson’s sale on May 28th, 1907, was purchased 
for 160 guineas. It carried a spike of three splendid blooms. Mr. Cookson 
had bought the plant at the Temple Show, 1906, at an enormous price. 
How many collectors were sorry I do not know, but the great major ity 
were very pleased to seea prospect of owning some of these much coveted 
plants. To-day the great mass of blotched crispums are within the powef 
