DECEMBER, 1915.| THE ORCHID REVIEW. 357 
are very slender and setaceous. The petals are rather long in proportion 
and strongly ciliate. The flowers form a perfect circle, and look like a 
series of very small parrots’ heads, the lip representing the beak. They are 
{as indeed all the Cirrhopetala are) fertilised by a minute Dipteron, which 
usually settles upon the long pendent sepals and climbs up them till it 
reaches the lip, upon which it sits, and when it has got beyond the balancing 
point of the lip is pitched off upon the column, when it receives the pollinia. 
I have seen one fly ride on the lips of all the flowers in an umbel in turn, 
but as a rule only one or two flowers at most are fertilised.” It is certainly 
a very attractive little plant. 
—+>0<=-——— 
LaniIuM BERKELEyI.—Orchids occasionally appear in cultivation quite 
unexpectedly, and this was the case with the interesting little Brazilian 
species that is the subject of this note. It was described over twenty years 
ago (Rolfe, in Kew Bull., 1894, p. 292) from a plant that was found on the 
roots of a clump of Cattleya, probably C. Leopoldii (though it was called 
C. guttata), by Major-Gen. E. S. Berkeley, Bitterne Park, Southampton. 
It flowered in January, 1891. Afterwards Messrs. Sander obtained it 
among their Brazilian importations. And now history is repeating itself, 
for Mr. E. W. Thompson sends it for name from the collection of Philip 
Smith, Esq., Haddon House, Ashton-on-Mersey, with the information that 
it was found on the roots of an imported Lelia purpurata. This would 
indicate the habitat as Santa Catherina, where C. Leopoldii and L. 
purpurata grow together. Another plant flowered at the Royal Botanic 
Garden, Edinburgh, that was found on the roots of Cattleya Harrisoniana. 
It is a graceful little plant, some six or eight inches high, the small pseudo- 
bulbs bearing a pair of short, oblong leaves, and erect spikes of small light 
green flowers, with a few minute reddish dots.—R.A.R. 
Men eos 
MILTONIA VEXILLARIA VAR. LEOPOLDII.—Flowers of a very interesting 
Seedling of Miltonia vexillaria are sent by Messrs. Charlesworth & Co., 
Hayward’s Heath, in which M. vexillaria var. Leopoldii has been used 
twice in the crossing. Messrs. Charlesworth write: * In the first place 
M. v. Leopoldii was crossed with an ordinary vexillaria, producing what 
Vaylsteke called M. v. dulcis, none of which showed any influence of 
Leopoldii, for we believe the remark applies to Vuylsteke’s batch as well as 
©ur own. This was again crossed with Leopoldii, producing, as you see 
avery similar thing to Leopoldii. This is the third seedling of the wt 
and all are practically the same.” The remark is quite correct, and the 
tesemblance seems to extend also to the autumn-flowering character. The 
large, triangular, intense purple blotch at the base of the lip sets the 
flowers off to great advantage. 
