132 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [May, 1915. 
appeared with the name O. Gladys, and the question arose how the — 
complication should be dealt with. But if the original name does not 
consist of a single word it is at least indivisible, and not unduly long, and: 
we propose to get over the difficulty by writing it Odontioda Red-Riding- 
Hood. 
Another correspondent remarks that he appreciates the difficulty of — 
keeping correct records of parentage, but it appears to him a hopeless 
subject. He also suggests that one of the difficulties of a stable nomen- 
clature is that the rules came too late, and that it is difficult to break — 
away from a bad precedent. But the R.H.S. rules extend back to 1889, 
when hybrids were certainly not numerous, and we attribute the confusion 
to other causes, which have been pointed out again and again. And we do 
not regard the matter as altogether hopeless, for there has been a consider-’ 
able improvement of late. Probably the failure to appreciate the 
“hecessities of the case has béen’one of the most’ potent causes of confusion, 
for intelligible records cannot be kept under a multiplicity of conflicting 
systems. 
Again, a correspondent expresses considerable sympathy with the non- 
scientific side of the question, that one has a right to identify his name and 
the names of his friends with the results of his efforts in hybridisation. But — 
this is attainable without a total disregard of the rules, and the scope’ 
among varieties is endless. One correspondent admits having recorded 
over a thousand varieties of Odontoglossum crispum, and hybrids are sO 
numerous and so variable that we have received complaints about the 
difficulty of finding names for them. True, we have too many varietal’ 
names, but as the superfluous ones drop out, and nobody troubles about 
priority, it does not matter so much. Individual variations, indeed, they 
often are. It is the confusion in specific names that is giving most of the 
trouble, and an effort at least should be made to give the Rules a chance. 
The other day the following caught our eyes: ‘‘ Dendrobium nobile 
album.—The pure white form of this species, often known as the virginale 
variety.” The correction is inadmissible. This charming albino was 
described and figured in these pages in 1897 (page 145), on its original 
appearance, the varietal name virginale being chosen because there was 
already a variety albiflorm, which, however, has a maroon disc to the lip. 
D. nobile album was certificated three years later by the the R.H.S. 
Two or three other important questions have been raised in corres- 
pondence, but they must be deferred for the present. 
