AUGUST, IgII.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 227 
originally formed, and with this modification (which is only the correction 
of a copyist’s or printer’s error) we think that they should be uniformly 
adopted. Thus we should write Diacattleya Sander and Sophrocatlelia 
Alethea when speaking of the two hybrids mentioned at the head of this 
paragraph. 
There is a note by Mr. T. Anstiss in a recent issue of the Journal of 
Horticulture about which we have a word to say. Speaking of the choicer 
Orchids seen at the Temple Show, he remarks: ‘“‘ First and foremost was 
M. Vuylsteke’s charming little group of about six plants, the best of which 
was Odontioda Coronation, the price being, we understand, the proverbial 
£1,000. The plant was labelled Odontioda Vuylstekez Coronation, but 
this was undoubtedly wrong, for it could not possibly be a variety of that 
famous plant. Odontioda Vuylstekez may have been one parent, and a 
good Odontoglossum the other, but some of our Continental friends are 
very shy about revealing the parentage of their rarities, and personally I 
quite agree with them. This Odontioda has, however, one fault; the 
‘red’ is fast disappearing, and for this delightful genus to maintain its 
popularity, so far as further crossings are concerned, the red colouring 
must be preserved.” 
Now we are under the impression that the actual parentage was 
unknown, for M. Vuylsteke has made several crosses with his original 
Odontioda Vuylstekez, and seedlings out of the same seed-pod have shown 
a perplexing amount of variation, so that stray seedlings can hardly be 
allocated to their proper place when they flower. And we are assured that 
stray seedlings have occurred. Indeed it is almost inevitable unless the 
seed beds are isolated when the seeds are sown, and the subsequent 
watering carried out with the greatest care. We should be very sorry to 
think that raisers were deliberately withholding the parentage of their 
rarities, and that our journalistic friend was aiding and abetting the same. 
There are difficulties enough in keeping our records without a complication 
of this kind, and we think that raisers should consider it a point of honour 
to give adequate information, so as to have their hybrids recorded as 
correctly as possible. 
We recently put this question to one of our most successful hybridists, 
and his reply is worth putting on record. He said, ‘‘ When a hybrid 
flowers and is exhibited its parentage should be given, if it is known, and if 
not one should explain why. We get stray seedlings, and when they 
flower we cannot always tell which batch they came from, though some- 
times we can. There is no object in keeping the information back. One 
