298 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
CATTLEYA x HARDYANA. 
ANOTHER natural hybrid must be added to the list of those whose parentage 
has been proved by experiment, namely, the handsome Cattleya x 
Hardyana. Two artificially raised plants were exhibited at the meeting of 
the Royal Horticultural Society on September 8th, from the collection of 
Norman C. Cookson, Esq., Oakwood, Wylam-on-Tyne, and, needless to 
say, attracted a good deal of attention. These, Mr. Murray states, were 
obtained by crossing Cattleya Dowiana aurea with the pollen of C. Warsce- 
wiczii (gigas), the cross being made in August, 1887, the seed sown twelve 
months later, and the first flowers expanding in August of the present year, the 
plants thus being eight years old. One of them bore a single flower, and 
the other a spike of two, which were quite identical with some forms of the 
wild plants. The sepals and petals are rosy purple, most resembling those 
of C. Warscewiczii ; the front lobe of the lip rich crimson-purple, and very 
undulate ; the disc bearing some of the characteristic golden veining of C. 
Dowiana, while on the sides of the throat are two deep yellow blotches. It 
is a very interesting matter to have the parentage thus confirmed, and as there 
are additional seedlings of the same batch which have not yet reached the 
flowering stage, it will be curious to watch whether any of them prove more 
like the seed parent than the two above-named. Possibly some one may 
have tried the reverse cross, and whenever the plants flower it will be 
interesting to note the result. Probably some of the choice white varieties 
will in due time appear, and in any case the present example is sure to lead 
to renewed efforts to obtain them artificially. Whether they are more 
likely to result from the reverse cross, or whether they appear exceptionally 
as single individuals among batches of the coloured forms is at present 
quite uncertain ; meantime, however, we may note that in the present 
examples the flowers most resemble the pollen parent in colour. 
AN AMATEUR’S NOTES. 
THE dull season is now about over, and the usual autumn-flowering species 
are rapidly putting in an appearance. Even such autumn flowerers a 
Cattleya labiata and C. Bowringiana have some buds now well advanced; 
and having grown so well during the past summer, will soon make a supe 
display. The same may be said of Cypripedium insigne—indeed, @ flower 
on a very forward plant has already expanded. The two Cattleyas of this 
Particular season are C. Dowiana and C. x Hardyana. Both are superb, 
and I am never tired of admiring their beauty. Several of the former, how- 
ever, are still in bud, and the display will be finer in a week or two. 
