7 o THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



been known as Laelia glauca during recent years. The flowers are light 



whitish green in colour, either with or without a dull purple blotch in the 



ii. B. Digbyana was described and figured by Lindley in 1846 (Bot. 

 Reg., xxxii., t. 53), from a specimen which flowered in the collection of 

 Edward St. Vincent Digby, Esq., at Minterne, Dorsetshire, in July of that 

 year. It had been sent from British Honduras by Mrs. McDonald, wife of 

 the Governor of that Colony. Three years later it flowered at Kew, and 

 was figured in the Botanical Mag&zine it. 4474'. For many years it remained 

 very rare, though examples were occasionally met with, and not until its 

 value for hybridising purposes was realized was it much sought for, after 

 which importations were received, and it became comparatively common. 

 It is now largely used for hybridising, and many seedlings are in existence 

 beside those which have already reached the flowering stage. It is a 

 remarkable species in every respect, and the beak of the mature capsule 

 measures six inches, or three times as long as the capsule itself {Orch. Rev., 

 vii., p. 238). Had this character been known to Bentham, it is probable 

 that his name of Laslia Digbyana would never have been given. 



R. A. Rolfe. 



ANCECTOCHILI. 



Mr. J. K. Budde, Curator of the Utrecht Botanic Garden, has sent a 

 further note to the Gardiiicrs' Chronicle on the culture of Anoetochili 

 (February 15th, p. 106), from which we make a few extracts to supplement 

 the remarks given on page 8 of our January issue. 



Mr. Budde calls them the most beautiful plants on earth, considered 

 collectively, and remarks that, although found in both the Eastern and 

 Western Hemispheres, the kinds that have the most lovely and richest leaf- 

 colouring come from Java. Prof. Treub told him that they do not grow so 

 well in the forest under natural conditions as they do under cultivation at 

 Utrecht. Generally they are difficult to keep alive, and often he has sent 

 a couple of healthy plants to M. A. Fiet, Curator of the Botanic Garden at 

 Groningen, but notwithstanding careful attention sooner or later they died. 

 Three years ago he again sent two nice little plants, which arrived in per- 

 fect order, and M. Fiet, remembering the situation in which they were grown 

 at Utrecht, gave them a northern aspect at Groningen, and since then he 

 has been equally successful. Mr. Budde remarks: — " We have, in one of 

 our stoves, a small case on the north side, which is the home of our 

 Ancectochili. Each plant is in a thumb pot, filled with good peat and 

 living sphagnum moss, mixed with small broken pieces of charcoal and 

 some sand. Twice a year, in March and October, they are repotted into 

 clean pots, a work for which I use my own hands and care. From most of 



