NovEMBER, 1916.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 259 
an Award of Merit the other day. The same thing has occurred in the case 
of other albinos Cattleyas when crossed with C. Dowiana, and, we 
believe, also when a purple form has been crossed in the same way, but of 
this we should be glad of further evidence, as the question has again come 
to the front. 
We have now a wealth of beautiful albinos, which promise to change 
the character of our collections, and it is pretty clear that many of the 
difficulties formerly encountered in their production have been solved. 
One such difficulty was the paucity of materials to work with, and the 
consequent use of parents that were not absolutely white, this often 
resulting in the production of purples. But there have been cases of 
reversion where both parents were white, or at all events white from the 
cultivators’ standpoint, and there have been cases of the production of both 
white and purple forms from the same seed-pod. It is further certain that 
at some time or other this kind of thing occurs in nature, where albinos 
are seldom found in quantity. Even if a batch of albinos were found wild 
under such circumstances as to suggest that they were the result of the 
self-fertilisation of a white form (as sometimes occurs in gardens), there 
would still be the original white parent to account for, and this invites an 
inquiry into the circumstances under which it has arisen. Something 
must have happened to eliminate the purple colour. 
The whole question is raised in a note on page 270, where Cattleya 
Corona alba is briefly described, and would form the subject for a very 
interesting discussion. Hybridisation is making enormous strides on every 
hand, and an exchange of opinions would probably accelerate progress. 
We hope that some of our readers will give us the benefit of their 
experience. 
PLEIONES AT Krew.—The autumn-blooming Pleiones, P. lagenaria, 
maculata, and praecox, are grown in quantity at Kew, and are now pro- 
ducing a very fine display. Perhaps the gem of the collection is a plant of 
the albino, P. przcox alba, bearing two of its beautiful white flowers, with 
a tinge of sulphur on the disc of the lip. It appeared about five years ago 
in a batch of the species imported from Darjeeling (O.R., xix. p. 335), and 
is the only plant known to us in cultivation. Messrs. King & Pantling, 
however (Orch. Sikkim, p. 141), remark that accasionally a specimen 
occurs with its flowers pure white. The plants at Kew are grown in pans, 
under the usual treatment. The history of the genus, which contains a 
good number of additional species, has already been given (O.R., xi. pp. 
289-292). 
