THE ORCHID REVIEW. 109 
dark and heavily-flaked variety, but I have since been told that it is already 
known under another name. This, however, we hope soon to prove by 
flowering the two plants. The present system of naming varieties so freely 
seems to be open to objection, though I am not prepared to offer sugges- 
tions which would remedy the existing confusion. Buying named varieties 
is at present a rather risky business. A short time ago we purchased a 
Cattleya Triane variety with a high-sounding name, but on flowering it 
proved to be one of the worst I ever saw, and the case is not by any 
means an isolated one. 
H. A. BURBERRY. 
[The flowers sent are Dendrobium nobile albiflorum, which was figured 
at page 113 of our last volume (fig. 12). The variety question is undoubt- 
edly a difficult one, and we could point out numerous instances of duplica- 
tion of names, which, of course, ought not to be. Many varieties are about 
which have not been properly recorded, and even recorded ones are often so 
scattered as to be frequently overlooked. The varieties of some of our 
popular species want bringing together, and arranging in such a way that 
their differences can be compared, and we hope to be able to do something 
in this direction in future numbers. Few, however, but those who have 
attempted it know the difficulties attending such a work. It would be 
rather interesting if those who possess named varieties of D. nobile would 
send a flower for comparison.—ED. | 
rt 
LZELIA x VENUSTA. 
I HAVE read with much interest the article on Mexican Hybrid Lzelias at 
pages 45 to 48, but think there must be some mistake about L. X venusta 
being the product of L. grandiflora and L. furfuracea. More than twenty 
years ago the late Mr. James Backhouse imported, through his collector 
Butler, magnificent masses of Lelia autumnalis, but the first one called 
“yvenusta’”’ was a plant with spikes one and a half to two feet long, with 
eight to ten flowers on a spike, each spike being as large and as perfect as 
L. autumnalis. This specimen was sold to Lord Londesborough when his 
collection was being formed at Grimston Park, Tadcaster. A few other 
plants were cultivated, Mr. Lee, of Downside, Leatherhead, and others 
obtaining plants at about the same time, when it came under the notice of 
Prof. Reichenbach, who, I believe, gave it the name venusta. Mr. 
Backhouse, a most careful observer, believed the plant to be a natural 
hybrid between L. furfuracea and L. autumnalis, and this is my opinon, as 
the result of seeing and cultivating it for nearly twenty years. I have never 
seen grandiflora (majalis) or furfuracea with stems more than about SIX 
inches long, nor having more than two flowers on a spike, while venusta 
had spikes equal in size to those of L. autumnalis, but the flowers had more 
