108 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 'APRIL, 1914. 
[Eeisess| PLEIONE. POGONIOIDES. Ary 
HIS distinct and pretty Chinese Pleione has at last flowered in 
cultivation, having been sent to Kew for determination by Messrs. 
Charlesworth & Co., Haywards Heath. It is said to have been received 
from China two years ago. Plants were previously sent by Mr. E. H. 
Wilson to Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, Chelsea, and one of them was 
grown at Kew but did not get strong enough to flower. The species was 
discovered as long ago as May, 1881, by Mr. T. Bullock, on wet rocks near 
Wu hu, in the province of An hwei, at an altitude of 3000 feet, and was 
briefly mentioned by Dr. Hance under the name of Pogonia sp. (Journ. 
Bot., 1885, p. 247). It was afterwards met with by Dr. Herry on high 
mountains near Patang, and described as Ccelogyne (Pleione) pogonioides, 
Rolfe (Kew Buill., 1896, p. 196), and afterwards as Pleione pogonioides 
(O.R., xi. p. 291). Dr. Henry states that the bulbs are used in medicine, 
yielding a drug known as Pen-mu. Among cultivated species it is most 
comparable with the Indian P. Hookeriana (Bot. Mag., t. 6388), but the 
flower is larger and both the segments and lip are light purple, the disc of 
the latter, however, being paler and having four fringed keels. Like that 
species, the leaves and flowers are borne together. It is an interesting 
addition toa very pretty little genus. R.A.R. 
——-—___ 
EPIDENDRUM O’BRIENIANUM: ANOTHER MENDELIAN| EXPERIMENT.— 
‘The result of self-fertilising Epidendrum kewense has already been recorded 
(O.R., xv. p. 58; xvii. pp. 13, 69). On the second occasion we remarked: 
“It would be interesting to self-fertilise E. O’Brienianum, for the parents 
show well-marked differences, both in floral and vegetative characters.” 
This has since been done, and two seedlings of the resulting batch are now 
in flower at Kew, and reproduce the character of the original in all respects. 
In the earlier experiment the chief differences between the parents 
(E. evectum and E. xanthinum) is in the colour of the flowers (purple self 
and yellow self), but in the latter (evectum x radicans) there are other 
differences. E. radicans has a rooting stem, a decurved column, and 
scarlet flowers. No segregation is apparent in the vegetative characters of 
the seedlings, and the same applies to the floral characters of the two 
now in bloom. Many years ago we saw seedlings of E. O’Brienianum 
obtained by crossing with the pollen of Dendrobium crystallinum (0.R., il. 
P- 291; vil. p. 199), and they were practically reproductions of the mother 
plant. It was not quite clear whether it was a case of false hybridism or of 
accidental self-fertilisation, but if the latter it would confirm the present in- 
dications that Epidendrum O’Brienianum is a stable hybrid. R.A.R. - 
a 
Nis = 
cer. 
; 
