298 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [OcTOBER, 1915 
coccinea.” About a year later, a further note by Reichenbach appeared 
(Gard. Chron., 1881, ii. p. 364): “I have just obtained beautiful materials 
of this from Mr. Henry T. Brown, who found the species six months ago 
on a small island when on an excursion from his residence, Tayabas, 
Philippine Islands—a pencil sketch, dried flowers, flowers in spirit, a sketch 
in colours, and living plants, five feet long, have been supplied to me.” 
Mr. Brown described it as follows: ‘It grows about ten to twelve feet 
high, with distichous, dark green, and somewhat fleshy leaves, about 
eight to ten inches long and 13 inch broad; inflorescence fairly long, 
branching, and bearing fifty to sixty,flowers, which are more than two 
inches across ; dorsal sepal and petals dark orange, lower sepals broad, and 
of a most brilliant velvet-crimson, with lighter shades of the same colour ; 
lip small, deep crimson, with small yellow bars, centre white.” 
The earliest record of its flowering in Europe that we know of is 
September, 1894, when a plant bloomed with Messrs. B. S. Williams 
& Son at the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Upper Holloway, and was 
figured in the Orchid Album (xi. t. 513). In June, 1896, another flowered 
with Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., at Burford, and was figured in the 
Botanical Magazine (t. 7537). The Kew plant is about five feet high, and 
its general character is shown in the figure, which is about one-fourth 
natural size. The colour we should describe as orange-red, with large 
crimson blotches on the lateral sepals, these being well-shown in the figure- 
It may be added that in July, 1903, a plant flowered at Kew, and another 
in the collection of J. Gurney Fowler, Esq., at Glebelands, S. Woodford, 
the latter being exhibited at a meeting of the R.H.S. (O.R., xi. pp. 231, 243)- 
It is a very brilliantly-coloured thing, but, like R. coccinea, does not seem 
inclined to flower until the plant reaches a good size. It requires a light 
position in the Warm house, with adequate shading during bright weather. 
It may be added that the species was also collected in 1882, by Burke, 
when travelling in the Philippines for Messrs. James Veitch & Sons, and 
later by Loher, the localities being unspecified, while more recently it has 
been collected at the Lamao River, in the province of Bataan, by Whitford. 
CROSS-FERTILISATION.—‘‘ The fact is that there has been continual 
cross-fertilisation of science. The those who remind us that Hertz, for 
instance, stood on the shoulds Fitzgerald, it may be answereds of Mended 
that Bateson stands on the shoulders of Mendel; and both statements 
would be ridiculously far off adequate accuracy.”—China Mail. 
Punch, to whom we are indebted for the extract, adds: ‘‘ We agree.” 
“It looks rather like cross-fertilisation of Mendelism,” suggests a 
DISTRACTED CORRESPONDENT. 
