APRIL, 1916.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 99 
species which will at once suggest themselves, with the nobile section, will 
be likely to secure a triumph. The fact that successes have been made 
with some of these would go to show that to obtain favourable results is 
not outside possibility. 
I communicate these few remarks in the hope that they may lead to a 
discussion which can but be interesting and advantageous to Orchid lovers, 
and I send a few of the flowers referred to, that happen to be in bloom, 
rather hoping that you may be inclined to supplement my remarks with 
some useful views. JEREMIAH COLMAN. 
Gatton Park. 
Twelve interesting flowers are sent, and, before mentioning them, we 
may refer to one or two of the points raised. A good yellow of the nobile 
type has long been a desideratum, but the difficulty has been that there is 
so little to start with. D. aureum is buff rather than yellow, and soon 
proved a failure so far as the latter colour is concerned. There remained 
D. signatum, with clear yellow flowers, though of smaller size, and, more- 
over, weak in habit, but it proved the stepping stone to success, for, united 
with D. nobile, it gave D. Wiganiz, with a trace of the desired colour 
(especially in the variety xanthochilum) and an improved shape, and it has 
been followed by D. Imogen (from euosmum), D. Melpomene (from 
Ainsworthii), D. Ophir (from aureum), D. clarense (from Findlayanum), D. 
Myra (from Linawianum), D. Buttercup (from Rolfez), and one or two 
others. And D. Wiganiz, in its turn, has given the rich yellow D. ches- 
singtonense, D. Thwaitesiz, and some others. In fact yellow now forms a 
considerable class in our collections, as we saw at page 76. 
The exceptional size of D. Artemis (a variety of D. Gem) we should 
attribute to D. nobile nobilius, and not to any hidden quality of D. aureum. 
Its parentage is D. Ainsworthii splendidissimum (aureum X nobile nobilius) 
 aureum Gatton Park var. (a large aureum), and this would be expected 
to give increased size, which in turn would be handed on to D. Lady 
Colman (Artemis X Findlayanum). D. Rubens grandiflorum represents 
D. Ainsworthii splendidissimum recrossed with the other original parent, 
and the reason for its size is equally apparent. There is nothing among D. 
signatum comparable in size to D. nobile nobilius, and to this fact may be 
attributed the smaller size of the yellow hybrids. But D. signatum crossed 
with these large forms should give something equivalent to D. Wiganiz in 
colour, and size would probably follow. Any other yellow would be avail- 
able, and we should like to know if a cross of this kind has been tried. 
Failing this, size will probably follow by further crossing and selection 
among the yellows, probably associated with a tendency to produce fewer 
flowers. In the meantime we are inclined to regard mere lack of size as 
a minor defect in such free-flowering plants. 
