336 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
of the plants in my list to any state of healthy growth in our excessively- 
heated Orchideous house.” 
Thus was Orchid culture gradually progressing, and in this connection 
it is interesting to recall a much fuller account of Beaton and his methods, 
which appeared in our first volume (pp. 138-142). 
(To be continued). 
A DOUBLE ODONTOGLOSSUM PESCATOREI. 
A REMARKABLE double flower of Odontoglossum Pescatorei is sent from the 
collection of T. Baxter, Esq., Oakfield, Morecambe, by Mr. Roberts. The 
doubling in this case does not proceed from the fusion of two flowers and 
consequent increase in the number of parts, but from the breaking up of 
the column into supernumerary petaloid segments, as in the double form of 
Epidendrum vitellinum, which appeared a few years ago. The sepals and 
petals are quite normal, and the colour white; the former with one or two 
bright purple blotches about the centre, and the latter unspotted. The lip 
is also normal in shape, being very broadly pandurate, but one side of the 
crest is less developed than the other, and immediately in front of the crest 
is a small, bright purple blotch. It is in the column that the remark- 
able character is seen, and this organ is broken up into six petaloid appen- 
dages, and three more or less clavate bodies, the former apparently repre- 
senting the six stamens, and the latter the three pistils. The staminodia 
appendages are pure white, more or less laterally curved, and each bears two 
or three small spots, and the three pistillate appendages are light green. 
These nine appendages are in three whorls of three each, the outer whorl 
being opposite to the sepals, the next whorl opposite to the petals and the 
lip, and the pistillate whorl again opposite to the outer whorl, forming a 
nearly regular double flower. It may be noted that the two staminodial 
appendages opposite to the normal petals (homologically the column-wings) 
are united for a short distance beyond the others, and bear between them 
one of the pistillate appendages which is homologically the rostellum. If 
one could imagine a lily with its six stamens transformed into petals of 
about half the usual size, and united for a short distance at the base into a 
central column, from which arose the three stigmas, which were dwarfed to 
about a sixth of their length, one would have a very fair idea of this remark- 
able flower. It illustrates the typical monocotyledonous structure, and 
emphasizes the profound modifications which have taken place in a typical 
Orchid flower in a way not often seen, even among abnormal Orchids. It 
will be interesting to see if it agrees with the Epidendrum above named in 
having the peculiarity fixed or permanent. If so, it will be the first truly 
double Odontoglossum known. R. A. ROLFE. 
