216 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [SEPTEMBER, 1916. 
question of the fertility of hybrids, which seems to be almost the rule 
among Orchids. It may be added that only in one case do the parent 
species grow together, but there are some puzzling forms which have been 
referred both to C. Hardyana and to one or the other of its two parents, 
that may be secondary hybrids. The hybrids C. Prince-John and the 
corresponding hybrid between C. Hardyana and C. Warscewiczii should 
be interesting in this connection, but there may be wild hybrids of much 
more ancient ancestry. Cattleya Dowiana, as is well known, occurs in two 
widely separated areas; in Costa Rica, where it was originally discovered, 
and in the Frontino district of the State of Antioquia, some six hundred 
miles further south, the latter being known as var. aurea. It is only in 
the latter area, where it grows with C. Warscewiczii, that these curious 
intermediate forms occur. In the Costa Rica district there is a variety 
Rosita, which is characterised by the exceptional amount of purple in the 
sepals and petals. 
aes 
BEAUTIFUL white Sobralia with deep yellow disc to the lip has 
flowered at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, which Sir 
Frederick W. Moore states was imported from Peru. It has been taken 
for a form of the Costa Rican S. leucoxantha, Rchb. f., but further 
consideration raises the question whether it may not be the imperfectly- 
known S. Klotzscheana, Rchb. f. (Linn@a, xxii. p. 815). That was based 
on a specimen collected at Chicopleya, Peru, by Ruiz, as long ago as 1797; 
and the flowers are described as white, and of much the size and beauty as 
S. macrantha. The description is otherwise very imperfect and without 
dimensions. It is the only Peruvian species placed by Lindley in this 
group, and at all events the colour and the native country are in agreement, 
so that unless there is another Peruvian species of the affinity it may belong 
here. The flowers of the Glasnevin plant are smaller than in S. macrantha, 
and the sepals and petals relatively rather shorter and broader than in S. 
leucoxantha. It is unfortunate that the original specimen is not accessible, 
for, in view of the little that is known of the distribution of the Sobralias, 
the identity of the plant cannot be cleared up with certainty. And there is 
another mystery, for Ruiz & Pavon described three species, the original 
S. dichotema, well-known from dried specimens, and bearing panicles of 
flowers, S. amplexicaulis, now known as Epistephium amplexicaule, and 
S. biflora, still only known from the very imperfect description, and which 
ought not to be identical with S. Klotzscheana. There are probably other 
Peruvian species. 
SOBRALIA KLOTZSCHEANA. | tery 
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