THE ORCHID REVIEW. 143 
ODONTOGLOSSUM CRISPUM GOLDEN QUEEN AND ITS 
RELATION TO O. x WILCKEANUM. 
IN reference to the note on the above plant (page 111), I am glad to see that 
_ you at first thought it a form of Wilckeanum, though because you could 
not find the crest, column wings, and lip to be like luteopurpureum, you 
gave the idea up. I have my dried bloom and your figure before me, the 
latter, by bad arrangement of the light, has blackened out the elongated 
filaments of the crest, hence it misleads a casual observer. 
The dried bloom distinctly shows two filaments on each side of the 
crest, elongated beyond the edges of the plate, which in an ordinary 
crispum is almost entire at the edge, but as soon as any influence of luteo- 
purpureum appears the nerves elongate and the extended filaments of that 
species supervene ; also the panduriform shape of the lip clearly shows the 
luteopurpureum form, though in a modified degree. 
The yellow colour, brown spots arranged in three whorls in the sepals 
and one in the petals, and the extended filaments in the crest, are three 
strong points as evidencing the influence of luteopurpureum, at least to my 
mind. Form, constituting the fourth point, is more like crispum; but in 
the finest forms of Wilckeanum form goes to crispum almost always (vide 
Baron Schréder’s ‘‘ Queen Empress” at R.H.S., April 13th, 1897). Again, 
even the two teeth of the lip of the *‘ Golden Queen ” are far more ragged 
than an ordinary crispum, and also longer. 
I admit these botanically important features are less marked than the 
horticulturally important ones in colour, spots, and good shape; hence it 
seems nearer crispum, but nothing will ever convince me that ‘ Golden 
Queen ”’ is a pure crispum, speaking scientifically. 
It is quite possible that it may be a hybrid between Wilckeanum and 
crispum, but I am of opinion that were this so, the spots would, perhaps, 
have been more reduced, but I prefer to think it a Wilckeanum pure and 
simple, having so expressed myself in the last paragraph, and I can but see 
it in this light. 
De BARRI CRAWSHAY. 
(‘A fine photograph of a single flower was sent by Mr. W. Stevens, 
Mr. Thompson’s gardener, in which the details of the crest have come 
out a little clearer, but it arrived after the block had been prepared. 
The photograph used was taken by Mr. G. I’Anson, of Upper Clapton. 
The lateral teeth of the crest, it is true, are slightly more prominent 
than in O. crispum, and it is quite possible that it is a form of the 
variable O. x Wilckeanum, in which the shape of O. crispum is nearly 
reproduced. Other instances could be adduced among hybrids.—Eb.} 
