166 THE ORCHID REVIEW. {JuLy, 1917. 
foc ia 
PIDENDRUM ciliare is the commonest and most widely distributed 
Orchid in Costa Rica with any pretension to beauty, growing from 
near sea level up to 4000 feet at least, its zone of greatest abundance being 
2500 feet, at which elevation large clumps grow on Gliricidia maculata or 
Erythrina. Though it seems to have preference for these hosts, it is a 
most adaptable plant, and will thrive on old piled stone walls, though with 
less luxuriance than on an arboreal support. On the Atlantic slope it 
blooms in February and March, and its flowers, pure white at first, 
changing to yellowish with age, are deliciously fragrant. Those on old 
stone walls by the roadside near Santiago synchronise with those of E. 
radicans, but I have never seen a hybrid between them, and though for 
several years crosses have been made each way no successful result seems 
to have occurred. I have frequently fertilised E. ciliare with many species 
of Cattleya, and have sown the resultant seeds on fence trees in our 
immediate vicinity, and I hope that some day other hands may reap the 
benefit of the experiments. 
In the days when Cattleya Dowiana was scarcer and much sought after, 
E. ciliare was often mixed with the genuine plant, and when in poor 
condition, with monophyllous bulbs, it bears a faint resemblance to the 
famous Cattleya, and has probably disappointed many an incautious buyer. 
It has been known to aspire to even higher rank, being palmed off as the 
Guaria blanca (C. Skinneri alba), though in this case the resemblance 
between the plants helps the fraud. C. H. LANCASTER. 
Cachi, Costa Rica. 
[Mr. Lancaster sends a photograph of the plant growing artificially 
on the trunk of Croton gossypifolium, which he remarks is not at all a 
sympathetic host to Orchids. It shows a large number of flowers, but 
owing to the mass of surrounding vegetation we fear that it would not 
reproduce well.] 
es EPIDENDRUM CILIARE IN COSTA RICA. BS) 
SEEDS OF CYMBIDIUM TRACYANUM.—At page 144 a note appeared of an 
interesting experiment by Messrs. Charlesworth & Co. to ascertain the 
number of seeds in a capsule of Cymbidium Tracyanum, and a rough 
estimate of over 850,000 was arrived at. After the note was written Mrt- 
L. A. Boodle, of the Jodrell Laboratory, kindly undertook to make an 
estimate, and he arrived at a total of rather over 1,561,000. The method 
adopted was to count 2,000 seeds under the microscope and then weigh 
them. The weight, when dry, was .oo81 gramme, and this multiplied by 
