Sept.-OcT., 1918.| THE ORCHID REVIEW 191 
“The flowers of this species appear to be sexually trimorphous, like those 
of the Cataseti, but which are respectively the male, female, and her- 
maphrodite remains to be determined.” 
The real explanation came when a living piant of C. Egertonianum was 
sent to Kew by the late Richard Pfau, and soon afterwards repeated the 
phenomenon which Bateman sought to represent on his famous t. 40, 
namely, the production of two kinds of flowers on the same pseudobulb. 
But there was this discrepancy, that while one of them was C. Egerton- 
ianum, the other was not C. ventricosum—that is to say it had not the 
elongated column of C. ventricosum, though the colour was green. In 
short, the two kinds of flowers proved to be the two sexes of C. Egerton- 
ianum, the female having a short, stout column. The next discovery was 
that the so-called “‘ sport ” of C. ventricosum, of which the sketch and the 
actual flower are preserved in Lindley’s Herbarium, was also a female, while 
the original C. ventricosum was a male. Here, then, were the two sexes 
of each species, and as Bateman’s plate showed the impossible combination 
of two different kinds of males on the same pseudobulb it was clear that 
the artist had introduced:an error, probably in restoring the withered green 
flowers by the help of the earlier drawing. This explanation was submitted 
to Mr. Bateman, who was then living, and he replied that it was probably 
correct, though he could not recall the circumstance of how the drawing 
Was made. He, however, gave a very graphic account of the whole 
of the circumstances (O.R., vi. p. 57) 
The question now appeared in a totally new light, for the other forms 
mentioned also fell away as simply cases of contusion, and showed how 
little was really known about C. ventricosum. There are two alleged 
figures of it (Maund, Bot., ii. t. 54, and Ann. de Gard., iv. t. 187), but both 
tepresent C. chlorochilon, Klotzsch. And when the true C. ventricosum did 
at length reappear in cultivation we find it recorded under the name of C. 
chlorochilon (Gard. Chron., 1888, ii. p. 326)- 
The true C. ventricosum appears to have been met with by Warscewicz 
at Chiriqui, and recorded by Reichenbach (Beitr. Orch. Centr.-Amer., p- 23); 
three flowers from this collection being preserved in Lindley’s Herbarium, 
Which are the only native ones we know of. In 1902 a living plant of a 
Cycnoches was sent to Kew from the Botanic Station, Belize, British 
Honduras, which on flowering proved to be C. yentricosum. Of cultivated 
Specimens, besides the recent materials, there is Bateman’s orginal, and the 
female flower from Sir P. Egerton. It is unfortunate that Bateman’s so- 
Called « sports” and the one from the Holford collection were not preserved, 
for with them the confusion would probably have been cleared up earlier. 
There is q possibility that the Bridge Hall plant may also produce female 
Owers if grown well, R ‘ 
