132 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [May, ror. 
niveum xX Lawrenceanum Hyeanum was a complete failure, all being 
coloured like an ordinary Antigone. Why we should get a flower much 
nearer an albino through Lawrenceanum Gratrixianum seems to us @. 
mystery: There is no possibility of the seeds or plants having been mixed, 
the present cross having been sown over three years later than the first.” 
This plant was exhibited at the R.H.S. meeting held on April 2nd last as C. 
Antigone album, the purple tint then being less developed, and the flower sent 
is the upper one of two borne by the scape. It is more like C. niveum in shape 
than the one from M. Peeters, and may be described as greenish white, with 
light-gréen veins, but there isa slight purple tinge and a few minute purple 
dots towards the apex of the petals, also a purple tinge on the staminode, 
so that it is not an albino, though it has much less purple than the typical C. 
Aphrodite. C. L. Gratrixianum, it may be added, approaches C. L. 
Hyeanum, except that it has a little purple suffusion towards the margin of 
the dorsal sepal and apex of the petals. 
As regards C. Lawrenceanum Hyeanum X niveum, raised by M.. 
Peeters, and the reverse cross raised by Mr. Balmforth, they are cases of 
reversion, of which a good many are now on record, but the other case is: 
difficult to account for. It will be interesting to see what other seedlings 
from the same batch are like. As regards the name, it may be remarked that 
the original C. Aphrodite was raised by Messrs. Veitch from C. niveum X 
Lawrenceanum, and C. Antigone at a later date from the reverse cross. 
A. R. 
OSMUNDA FIBRE: WANTED A NAME! 
TuereE has always, to my mind, been a lack of a fitting name for the 
Osmunda root-fibre as used in Orchid culture, one that is definite and 
descriptive and at the same time contained in one word. In correspondence 
recently with Professor L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University, he suggests. 
the name ‘“‘ Osmundine,” which will mean, ‘‘ belonging to Osmunda,”’ and 
this seems fitting. In the new edition of the American Cyclopedia of 
Horticulture which is now being prepared, the word Osmundine will be 
used throughout, and this will doubtless pave the way for its universal 
adoption here. Might it not be well for you to consider the adoption of 
this suggestion among British Orchid growers. The root-fibre as seen in 
commerce is usually the product of two species of Osmunda, O. Clay- 
toniana (interrupta) and O. cinnamomea, as these two ferns grow on drier 
uplands. O. regalis is essentially a plant of the swamps, the roots often 
submerged, and never making as large stools. The fibre, moreover, is apt 
to become more or less sour and unsuitable for epiphytal Orchids. We 
therefore feel the need of a good name that will be suitable alike for 
cultivators and the trade generally. Through correspondence in past 
— Se 
