THE ORCHID REVIEW. 195 
about the latter will be to invest him with the necessary powers. When this 
is accomplished there will be some chance of improvement. 
I alluded at page 162 to the splendid group of Orchids exhibited by 
Sir Frederick Wigan, at the Temple Show, which gained the Sherwood 
Silver Cup. The Council of the Royal Horticultural Society have since 
awarded a Gold Medal to the group in recognition of its excellence, and I 
may congratulate Sir Frederick and his able grower, Mr. Young, on the 
double honour. 
ARGUS. 
ee A DIMORPHIC ORCHID. 
A VERY curious Orchid, which had been imported from New Grenada, 
has just flowered in the establishment L’ Horticulture Coloniale, at Brussels. 
It had at first three strong, sessile pseudobulbs, not unlike those of a large 
Oncidium, but from the last was produced a large leafy shoot, from the 
angles of which the flowers are at length produced, showing the plant to be 
an Ornithidium. This peculiar method of growth seems to be characteristic 
of many of the Ornithidiums. Some time ago a plant of O. coccineum in 
the collection of Baron Sir H. Schréder, was notedin these pages as “a very 
remarkable as well as pretty plant, for it has two kinds of growth; one an 
ordinary pseudobulb, the other a leafy flowering shoot, and the latter on the 
plant in question has produced a succession of flowers for the last four or 
five years” (Orchid Review, v. p., 228). Of the plant first mentioned— 
which has now been presented to Kew—M. Lucien Linden remarks that it 
has attracted much attention from visitors on account of its curious 
character. It is peculiar in having produced three ordinary pseudobulbs in 
succession before the leafy shoot appeared, by which the appearance of the 
plant was completely altered. These bulbs range from 14 to 2% inches 
long by about three-quarters as broad, and are somewhat compressed. 
Each bears a single leaf at the apex and a pair of others at the base, all 
being strap-shaped, somewhat recurved, aad ranging from three-quarters to 
over a foot long. The leafy shoot is a foot high, and bears twenty leaves 
ranging from 2} to 4 inches long. The first flower produced proves to be 
abnormal, having three lips, but this is probably an accidental occurrence. 
It is about equal to O. coccinea in size, but the colour is bright yellow with 
a crimson blotch on the front of the lip. Its name is at present uncertain. 
It would be interesting to discover the reason why several species of this 
genus have acquired the character of producing a special kind of flowering 
growth. 
RA. R: 
