THE ORCHID REVIEW. 307 
ORCHIDS AT ST. ALBANS. 
Visitors to St. Albans can always find much of interest in the well-known 
Nurseries of Messrs. F. Sander & Co., where so many plants besides Orchids 
are now grown, though it is with the latter that we are concerned, and 
numerous interesting examples are now in flower. 
One of the first to catch the eye was the remarkable Arachnanthe Lowii, 
with a long pendulous raceme of thirty-two dull crimson and green flowers, 
and two very different orange-coloured ones at the base. The cause. of this 
difference remains a mystery, but it is so constant that it cannot be mean- 
ingless. Both kinds of flowers appear equally perfect, at all events so far as 
the possession of perfect pollen is concerned, and it would be interesting to 
know whether both are equally capable of being fertilised and producing 
capsules, for the probability is that the difference is in some way connected 
with the fertilisation of the flowers, and consequent production of seed. 
Of plants flowering in quantity we noticed a fine lot of Odontoglossum 
grande, some fine forms of the beautiful Vanda coerulea, one plant carrying 
three large spikes, some good Cypripedium Charlesworthii, one of which 
had the dorsal sepal barely under three inches broad, Selenipedium 
Schlimii, early forms of Cattleya labiata, Miltonia spectabilis Moreliana, 
and Oncidium tigrinum, the latter just commencing to fiower. In a good °— 
batch of Stenoglottis longifolia, obtained by division, several were in bloom. 
Among Cattleyas were the handsome C. Warscewiczii, C. Dowiana 
aurea, C. elongata, a lot of C. Bowringiana just commencing to bloom, 
good examples of Lelia Dayana and L. pumila prestans, Lzlio-cattleya X 
elegans and L.-c. x Schilleriana, the handsome L.-c. X albanensis, in 
which the combined characters of Lzelia grandis and Cattleya Warneri—the 
former in shape, the latter in colour—are very apparent. The allied 
Sophronitis grandiflora was commencing to bloom, besides which we 
observed Epidendrum xX O’Brienianum, the old E. cochleatum, E. 
prismatocarpum, a good E. atropurpureum, E. organense, a very dwarf 
little plant, E. vitellinum, &c. A fine lot of Leelia anceps was throwing up 
very strong spikes. 
Turning to another group there were fine examples of Odontoglossum 
Harryanum in bloom, O. X Andersonianum, O. Lindleyanum, the recently- 
introduced O. aspidorhinum, O. bictoniense and its variety album, the 
handsome O. Uroskinneri, O. odoratum, O. Krameri, Oncidium incurvum, 
and O. trulliferum, Miltonia x Bluntii Lubbersiana, M. X Lamarcheana, 
M. Phalznopsis, and some of the small autumn-flowering forms of M. 
vexillaria. Several Masdevallias were out, including M. amabilis, M. 
floribunda, light and dark forms of M. infracta, M. coriacea, M. peristeria, 
varieties of M. Chimera, M,. Chestertoni, M. erythrochete, uM. x 
