JANUARY, 1g07-] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 5 
The houses are constructed upon thoroughly up-to-date principles, and 
with an-enthusiastic owner and such excellent appliances we may anticipate 
that the collection under Mr. Hunter’s charge will occupy a very important 
position in the near future. 
We omitted to mention that the houses were erected by Messrs. Wm. 
Richardson & Co., of Darlington. 
VARIATION IN ODONTOGLOSSUM CRISPUM. 
AN important article by M. A. Poirier appears under the above title in a 
recent issue of the Gardener's Chronicle (1906, ll. pp. 404, 405), which we 
summarise here, as it is in reply to one by Mr. de Barri Crawshay, which 
was reproduced in these pages (xiv. pp. 193-196). 
Writing from Velez, Colombia, M. Poirier remarks that the chief 
impression left upon the mind of the reader who knows the habitat of 
Odontoglossum crispum is that to follow the instructions literally would be 
to leave the finer varieties and purchase the poorer ones. And the explana- 
tion that the more nurnerous varieties of recent years is due to the abun- 
dance in the new districts of O. Hunnewellianum and O. triumphans, which 
are the equivalents of O. luteopurpureum and O. gloriosum in the Pacho 
district, is too erroneous to be passed over. 
O. luteopurpureum, he remarks, is strictly limited to the Cordillera of 
the Suma Paz, or to the south (Fusagasuga), while O. Hunnewellianum 
and O. x Adriane come from the Velez region, and every grower of experi- 
ence would refuse collections of O. crispum in which luteopurpureum is 
seen, as its presence would be an indisputable proof that the crispums will 
be pure Alexandre, the form with small, starry-like flowers from the 
Fusagasuga region. True, large consignments of the bad Fusagasuga type 
have been sent to Europe as being the finer type from the Velez region, but 
the explanation is simple. The Fusagasuga plants are found abundantly 
over the whole region, and can be obtained cheaply. They are charming 
in appearance, and are admired for their vigour, and their long, conical 
bulbs, flattened at the neck. They are transported to Pacho and to 
Chiquinquira, and sold to ignorant collectors at a good price. The trick 
is highly successful ; native dealers are usually unscrupulous, and find that 
they have an easy source of income, and the satisfaction of deceiving the 
stranger who relies only on their word. The writer himself, about three 
years ago, saw about twenty cases of Fusagasuga crispum on the way to 
Chiquinquira. The fact of these inferior types being mixed with a large 
proportion of the good type from the Velez region explains the large pro- 
portion of star-shaped flowers found in collections of crispum. There is, he 
remarks, no luteopurpureum in the Velez region. 
