38 THE ORCHID REVIEW. | FEBRUARY, 1923. 
MILTONIA VEXILLARIA AND M. REZLII. 
HEN Reezl was sent out to Colombia by M. Linden in 1871 to obtain 
Miltonia vexiilaria, which had been discovered about five years 
previously, his consignment of plants was so delayed that all were found to 
be dead on arrival in Belgium. The following year Chesterton made a 
similar journey and succeeded in bringing home live plants; in 1873, M. 
vexillaria flowered for the first time in England. 
But Reezl’s name will always be remembered by Miltonia Reezlii, 
discovered by him in 1872. He was going down the river Dagua, in South 
America, and had reached about ten miles from the outlet when his 
attention was arrested by the trunk of a tree that was being borne along 
down the stream and upon which was an Orchid, quite unknown, in full 
bloom. With a few others it was brought to England and flowered in 1873. 
It is somewhat remarkable that these two species, so very much alike, 
should flower for the first time in England during the same year. In 
Miltonia vexillaria the flowers are of a uniform rose-colour, while in M. 
Reezlii the chief distinguishing feature is the purplish blotch at the base of 
each petal. Ever since their introduction large quantities have been 
imported, although M. Vexillaria, with its many varieties, has been more 
generally cultivated by amateurs. 
In January 1889 a noteworthy event happened in the flowering of the 
first artificially produced Miltonia hybrid. This was M. Bleuana, raised 
by M. Alfred Bleu, of Paris, who obtained it by crossing vexillaria with 
Reezlii. The seedling was nearly five years old when the first flower 
appeared. The ambition of hybridists has always been the production of 
new forms and colourings, hence it seems rather strange that M. Bleu 
should have crossed two such similar species, for nothing very different from 
existing flowers could have been expected. But the crossing of vexillaria 
‘with Reezlii yielded one of the surprises of hybrid Orchids, for in nearly 
every example the flowers of the resulting seedlings are larger than those of 
either parent. 
The common practice of crossing a hybrid with one of its parents has 
been carried out with M. Bleuana, and in 1906 the first flowers were seen 
of M. Hyeana (Bleuana X vexillaria). In the following year appeared M. 
St. André (Bleuana X Reezlii), in which the other parent is made use of a 
second time. This intercrossing of vexillaria and Reezlii has been 
contitiied through several generations, and distinguishing names have been 
given to the various combinations, but as they all contain varying degrees 
of only the above two species they are in a sense merely varieties of M. 
Bleuana. However, for horticultural reasons, the respective names of the 
progressive matings are being recorded. 
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