202 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
How many people, I wonder, have raised and flowered seedlings of this 
parentage ? 
It is probably a fact that some species lend themselves to hybridization 
more readily than others; at all events my experience of Cypripedium 
Godefroy as a pollen parent has been altogether unsatisfactory, while C. 
x vexillarium superbum and C. X cenanthum superbum have proved 
almost as obstinate. 
‘ REGINALD YOUNG. 
Sefton Park, Liverpool. 
[A flower sent by Mr. Young quite bears out his remarks, for we fail to 
find any trace of C. niveum in the flower. The fact is difficult of explana- 
tion, especially as the cross appears to have been carefully made, and some 
_ of the seedlings are said to show evidence of C. niveum in the foliage. We 
hope hereafter to see the flower of these. The case of D. nobile nobilius, 
crossed with D. n. Cooksoni, ‘mentioned at page 168, is not analogous, 
because both are forms of the same parent, and both were reproduced 
from the same seed-pod. That mentioned at page 166 of our last volume, 
of Zygopetalum Mackayi crossed with Odontoglossum, where the seedlings 
showed no evidence of the pollen parent, is, perhaps, a parallel instance, 
and equally inexplicable. Perhaps others can throw some light on the 
matter.—Ep. | 
ONCIDIUM LANCEANUM. 
Mr. Broadway’s remarks, at page 146, on the fast increasing scarcity of 
Oncidium Lanceanum can be fully endorsed by anyone who has had any 
experience in collecting this Orchid in Trinidad. It is found, as he says, 
only in one corner, so to speak, of the island—the district of Cedros— 
whence it is brought to Port of Spain, and sold under the local name of 
‘“‘ The Cedros Bee,” the Oncidiums of Trinidad, except O. Papilio, which 
is known almost everywhere as “‘ The Butterfly Orchid,” being termed by 
local and unscientific collectors and growers ‘‘ Bees,’ the flowers of most 
species being supposed to bear a fancied resemblance to these hymen- 
opterous insects. The real cause, however, of the scarcity of these plants 
is not so much the “‘ raids of the collector” as the rapid alienation: and 
subsequent cultivation of the Crown lands where these Orchids abound. 
When Crown lands are sold in this island, the first thing the owner does is 
to cut down the luxuriant forest which covers the land purchased ; after 
which he sets fire to the dried twigs and branches, and thus destroys every 
living thing on the area cleared. It is in this way that many fine species — 
of Orchids are destroyed, and sometimes entirely exterminated, and the 
only means of preserving them would be to make small reserves of the. _ 
Speier Noe 
