NOVEMBER, 1913.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 331 
choose whichever of these it is able to bring to perfection. The male’ 
neccessarily requires a less continuous strain, as it is saved from the labour 
of ripening the capsules, which takes several months. When, therefore, 
the plant is comparatively weak, only male flowers are produced, but when 
the pseudobulbs are plump and strong, females.” 
Catasetum is one of the most remarkable genera in the whole family, 
and is only paralleled by the allied genus Cycnoches, whose history was 
given at pp. 269-274 of our seventh volume. In Mormodes, the other 
genus of the group, the sexes are not separated. 
CATTLEYA LODDIGESII ALBA. 
A VERY fine flower of this chaste variety is sent from the collection of 
Lt.-Col. Sir George L. Holford, K.C.V.O., Westonbirt, by Mr. Alexander, 
who remarks that it is one of a spike of seven flowers. It was obtained 
under the name of Cattleya Harrisoniana alba Stanley’s variety; but the 
absence of the characteristic bright yellow corrugated disc shows that it 
belongs to C. Loddigesii; of which it has precisely the shape and the very 
ample side lobes. The flower has an expanse of over four inches, and the 
petals are over an inch broad. The colour is white, with a pale sulphur 
tinge on the base of the front lobe of the lip, which colour extends round 
the side lobes near the margin. 
The corresponding form of C. Harrisoniana is known as C. Harrisoniana 
candida, and has been known for upwards of sixty years. Its original 
appearance is uncertain, but it was mentioned by Mr. B. S.. Williams 
under the name of C. candida (Gard. Chron., 1851, p. 543), as a beautiful 
autumn-flowering white variety, and afterwards it was referred to a variety 
of C. Harrisoniana. A more definite record was given by Mr. John Day, 
who drew it in July, 1863 (Orch. Draw., iii. t. 41), and again ten years later 
(1.c., xviii. t..29). He remarks: “I received this from Messrs. Loddiges & Co. 
in 1852, being one of fifty Orchids I bought from them for £50, and which 
Mr. Conrad Loddiges said he hoped and expected would be the means of 
inoculating me with the love of Orchids. It is a mere variety—white- 
coloured—of Cattleya Harrisoniana. It has the same corrugated lip, and 
is precisely the same in all respects but colour. It is a very charming 
thing, and blooms in August and September when it is much wanted.” 
The typical C. Harrisoniana was also one of the fifty, as recorded by Mr. 
Day when painting it (Orch. Draw., xi. t. 89), and from this circumstance 
we may infer that Messrs. Loddiges obtained it in an importation of C. 
Harrisoniana.. It is unfortunate that the names of C. Loddigesii and C. 
Harrisoniana have been transposed in some collections—probably through 
the sale of imported plants under the wrong names—but' they were 
correctly understood in Mr. Day’s time, and he also drew C. Loddigesii 
