7° THE ORCHID REVIEW. [May-JuNg, 1919. 
Of course, it would be necessary that a first-class man should be sent out, 
‘one who knows plants when he sees them, and how to handle them. He 
could also make short collecting trips to neighbouring countries at the 
proper season to obtain the best results. Labour could be had here at 
comparatively moderate cost, and the living conditions are as good and 
healthful as anywhere in the world. 
Mr. Powell encloses a list of shipping routes both east and west from 
the Isthmus, either weekly or fortnightly, these being regular sailings by 
established terminal lines, while there are many passing ships that can 
also be used for transport. He also encloses a number of cuttings of 
climatic and weather conditions of a country which promises large develop- 
ments in the future, owing to the successful cutting of the Panama Canal. 
VARIATION IN ODONTOGLOSSUM CRISPUM. 
HE extreme variability of the popular Odontoglossum crispum has been 
many times remarked upon, and it is now pretty generally understood 
to be largely due to intercrossing with several other species with which it 
grows intermixed. But when it comes to finding the dividing line between 
O. crispum, and its hybrids the trouble begins. We have many times been 
asked whether certain blotched forms could properly be regarded as 
.crispum without being able to give a satisfactory answer, and this applies 
both to blotched and yellow forms, though some of them can be picked out 
by characters that have obviously been derived from other species which 
grow in the same area. It is by this combination of characters that any 
natural hybrid can be recognised, for nature keeps no other records, and 
reversions necessarily pass as individuals of the pure. species. 
O. crispum is usually regarded as the most variable Orchid in existence, 
but this is probably because of the freedom with which it hybridises with 
other quite distinct species with which it grows, and the existence of 
a host of intermediate forms which cannot*be separated by any definite line. 
O. gloriosum, Lindleyanum and luteopurpureum would at first sight seem 
so different from O. crispm that no one would think of confusing them, 
yet forms intermediate between them and O. crispum began to appear in 
almost the earliest importations. That these intermediates were of hybrid 
origin was recognised from the outset, but they passed into O. crispum by 
such a chain of connections that the natural limits were obscured, and the 
forms most resembling O. crispum were for simple convenience described 
as varieties of it. 7 ¢ 
Typical O. crispum may be described as a white or blush-white species, 
with broad, unblotched or sparsely blotched sepals and petals, while O- 
