THE MOST USEFUL ORCHIDS 149 



Spring or early Summer. O. a. majus is finer than the type ; it 

 has larger, brighter yellow flowers, and its magnificent spikes are 

 often four feet high — a veritable shower of gold. 



O. BRACTEATUM is a Strong grower, and has shortly-branched 

 spikes three or four feet high, bearing in Summer an abundance 

 of inch-broad flowers that are bright greenish yellow, spotted with 

 dark purple. 



O. coNCOLOR is a small plant, and best grown in suspended 

 pans in the cool house ; it has semi-drooping spikes about fifteen 

 inches or more long, with comparatively large light-yellow flowers, 

 the lip being particularly prominent. 



O. CRISPUM is a popular and variable species, with rounded 

 flowers of a rich red-brown hue, and yellow markings on the lip, 

 and sometimes also yellow on the margins of the sepals and petals. 

 The spikes are branched, three feet high, and the flowers appear 

 in early Summer. O. c. grandiflorum and O. c. Charles- 

 woRTHii are splendid forms, with the golden markings highly 

 developed. Although O. Forbesii and O. Gardneri are distinct 

 from O, crispUTHy they are nearly allied to it, and have bright- 

 brown and yellow flowers in smaller spikes. All need the same 

 kind of treatment in the cool house. 



O. FLEXuosuM grows well in an intermediate temperature, and 

 is a fine plant for an amateur to cultivate. Its wiry-stemmed 

 spikes are about a yard high, and the inch-wide flowers are red- 

 brown, barred and tipped with yellow. Summer is the usual time 

 of flowering. 



O. iNCURVUM has flowers rather less than an inch across, but 

 these are borne profusely in much-branched, arching spikes that 

 may be six or seven feet long. They are fragrant, rosy-pink, 

 spotted and tipped with white. The variety O. i. album is white. 



