THE ORCHID REVIEW. 99 
In point of fact it is incorrect, for virginale is the variety, and the plant is 
either this or it is not. If it is different, it should receive a different 
varietal name, not an addition of the kind in question. It may be argued 
that it is a sub-variety, but if so, why not call it so at once? But is it 
necessary that names should be extended to such an inordinate length ? 
This is not a comment on the merits of the plant, which I had not the good 
fortune to see. It is, however, spoken of as “an advance on the former 
variety, in that the greenish area, at the base of the lip, is absent, the whole 
flower being pure white except the labellum, which has the faintest shade 
of pale primrose colour.” Now this is precisely the character of the 
original, which was both described and figured in these pages (v. p. 145). 
And several albinos which have since appeared have not been equal to the 
original form. [See figure on page 121.—Ed.] 
I have called attention to this matter again, because a good many 
similar names have appeared of late, and in my opinion they only tend to 
confusion in nomenclature, which, in the abstract, everyone seems anxious to 
avoid. 
ARGUS. 
BULBOPHYLLUM WATSONIANUM. 
THIs rare little plant is a native of Hong Kong, and was described by 
Reichenbach, from a specimen which flowered in 1888, at Kew (Flora, 1888, 
P- 155), where it has been cultivated ever since. This was not, however, 
its earliest appearance, for dried specimens at Kew show that it was 
described by Hance in 1883 (Journ. of Bot., 1883, p. 232), under the name of 
Eria ambrosia. It is said to have been found on rocks at the summit of 
Victoria Peak, in March, 1875, by Mr. C. Ford. It has now appeared in 
the collection of Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., Burford, Dorking, having been 
received with other Orchids from the same island. It is a very distinct 
little plant, most allied to B. capillipes, Par. and Rchb. f., from Burma, 
and B. uniflorum, Griff, from the Bhotan Himalaya and Mishmi Hills. The 
scapes are slender, about two inches long, and bear solitary, whitish flowers, 
ten lines in diameter, and having the sepals longitudinally striped with red- 
dish purple. The lateral sepals bear a pair of curious lobes above their 
junction with the stalk of the lip, which gives them a bilobed appearance, 
and the lip itself is very curious in structure, and not mobile as in most 
Species of the genus. The rhizomes are creeping, and the oblong pseudo 
bulbs and leaves each about an inch long. The pollinia are four in number, 
as in Bulbophyllum. R.A. R 
