THE ORCHID REVIEW. 235 
have been deemed a dubious one.’’—Batem. Orch. Mex. & Guat., t. 40. 
The two forms, or what were intended as such, are represented on the 
plate in question, but before discussing them further another very interesting 
circumstance must be mentioned. In September, 1843, Lindley received 
from R.S. Holford, Esq., of Westonbirt, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, 
a flower-spike of what he called ‘‘ Cycnoches ventricosum and C. Egerton- 
lanum intermixed on the same raceme.” It was exhibited at a meeting of 
the Horticultural Society, and was afterwards figured (Bot. Reg., xxix., 
Misc., pp. 75, 77). The raceme bore five flowers, one being the green 
female form, two others the purple male form, and the remaining two 
curiously intermediate, the perianth being-mottled with green and purple, 
though in structure they were essentially males. Singularly enough, the 
raceme is drawn as erect, instead of pendulous, though all the flowers are 
in their proper positions—that is with the lip uppermost. A possible 
explanation is that the raceme may have been tied to a stick, in which case 
the flowers would naturally right themselves. Unfortunately, Lindley did 
not preserve the raceme. The plant had been purchased from Messrs. 
Rollisons, of Tooting, as C. ventricosum. 
From the above facts it might be inferred that the female of Cycnoches 
Egertonianum is well known. In fact, it has often been stated, first that 
C. Egertonianum and C. ventricosum were sports of the same species, and 
afterwards, when the separation of the sexes became known, that they were 
the males and females respectively. Indeed, the circumstances detailed by 
Bateman, and a glance at the plate in question, seemed to preclude the 
possibility of any other explanation. And yet there is the difficulty that 
the flowers on the plate, which should be females, have the long and slender 
column of the males. It was evident that, as in the case of the “ third 
sex” of Catasetum, some mistake had been made, for no other species 
produced males of two different kinds. Again, the “ sports ’—as they were 
then called—figured by Bateman and Lindley, were very different, but, 
unfortunately, neither of the specimens had been preserved, or an explana- 
tion might have been possible. Sports of C. ventricosum, however, had 
been dried, and these were females, while typical C. ventricosum was of the 
other sex. One flower of C. Egertonianum figured by Lindley is also 
female, though not quite perfect, and Bateman’s alone remained anomalous. 
The only possible explanation seemed to be that the flowers of “the old 
C. ventricosum,” which “ were still hanging to the stem,’ may have been 
somewhat withered before the flowers of true C. Egertonianum expanded, 
and were restored by the artist with the help of a previous drawing. The 
character of the raceme and the shape of the sepals and petals fairly 
represent the female, but the column is that of the male. These facts were 
recorded three years ago (Gard. Chron., 1892, 1., PP- 294 205), and it is 
Satisfactory to find them now confirmed by plants at: Kew. Mr. Bateman, 
