THE MOST USEFUL ORCHIDS 123 



0. luteo-purpurea\ and a few others, with several remarkably fine 

 varieties of some of the hybrids mentioned, notably O. BRADSHAwi-ffi 

 Cookson's variety, these latter having been raised from particularly 

 fine forms of the Odontoglossum parent. Additions to the family 

 continue to arrive, and some splendid hybrids were exhibited at the 

 Temple Show of 1910, as O. King George V. and O. Royal Gem 

 [0. Vuylstekea x Odontoglossum armalnvillierense [ardentissimum]. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM 



An amateur Orchid grower usually commences his modest 

 collection with the Cypripediums that succeed under cool conditions, 

 and having achieved some success with them, and derived a great deal 

 of pleasure and satisfaction from their culture, he looks round for 

 other subjects upon which to exercise his skill. Already he will have 

 cast longing eyes upon the graceful arching spikes of the wondrously 

 beautiful Odontoglossums grown by his friends, or those exhibited 

 by the leading trade and amateur growers at the meetings of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society and the Manchester Orchid Society, 

 or at the leading provincial shows, and the one species, with its 

 innumerable varieties, that will have attracted his special attention, 

 is O. crispum. This fascinating Orchid has much to answer for. 

 It has lured men to their death, it has tempted fanciers to pay 

 enormous sums of money for a rare and distinctly marked variation 

 from the general type, and it has induced many a lover of flowers 

 to make his or her first attempt at Orchid culture. 



Not to admire Odontoglossums seems to be quite outside the 

 bounds of possibility. There is a grace and beauty in the spikes 

 and flowers of these lovely Orchids rarely, if ever, found in any 

 other class of plants. The blooms are not large enough to be 

 heavy or lumpy, and yet they are so formed in regard to substance 



