OcToBER, 1911.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 205 
sufficiently diverse to spoil each other, as is sometimes the case. One 
cannot be quite so sure about the result of crossing O. maculatum with the 
white and purple forms, but O. maculatissimum, raised by M. Ch. Vuylsteke 
from O. maculatum and O. armainvillierense (ardentissimum), is certainly 
handsome, so that there is plenty of room for further experiments. 
One of the most important matters in hybridising is the selection of 
parents whose colours harmonise or blend well, and indiscriminate crossing 
in this respect has probably been one of the chief causes of disappointment 
inthe past. Vigour and floriferousness—and hybrids are seldom wanting in 
both—are of little value if the important element of colour is lacking. 
PHAIOCYMBIDIUM CHARDWARENSE. 
NINE years ago a very curious hybrid was exhibited at a meeting of the 
R.H.S., under the name of Phaiocymbidium chardwarense. It was raised 
in the collection of G. F. Moore, Esq., Chardwar, Bourton on the Water, 
and was originally recorded as ‘‘ supposed to have been derived from Phaius 
grandifolius and Cymbidium giganteum. The flowers resembled Phaius 
Ashworthianus, being yellow, faintly striped with purple-red” (O.R., x. 
p- 117). The plant had entirely the structure of Phaius, without any trace 
of the Cymbidium, unless indeed the modified colour could be traced to its 
influence, and doubts were accordingly expressed about the recorded 
parentage. Shortly afterwards Mr. Morris, Mr. Moore’s then gardener, 
wrote: ‘‘ The seed from Phaius grandifolius X Cymbidium giganteum was 
sown on a large pot of the latter, and did not appear for twelve months, 
though after the plant was repotted the seedlings came up from very low 
down in the pot, and still continue to come. Some have been potted up 
every year, and there are still about a dozen on the pot. There is not the 
« slightest trace of the Cymbidium in the habit of the seedling, or the spike, 
though the lines of C. giganteum are very apparent on the flower”? (I. c., 
p- 190). 
In the following year it received a First-class Certificate from the R.H.S., 
and Mr. W. Page, who had succeeded Mr. Morris as gardener, then sent a 
couple of flowers, with the following note: “ The enclosed is a supposed 
hybrid between Phaius Wallichii x Cymbidium giganteum. It has been 
shown at a R.H.S. meeting, and there was some doubt as to its parentage 
by those who saw it there, but according to the records of our seedlings it 
must be correct, because it is the only Phaius cross recorded, and Mr. 
Moore had no other Phaius in his collection until recently. The plant, so 
far as I can see, is identical with P. Wallichii; there is nothing in the 
growth of the plant to suggest Cymbidium, but the flower certainly looks to 
me as if it had Cymbidium blood in it. We have about two dozen seedlings, 
