THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
Vor. AV.) JUNE, 1907. {No. 174. 
ORCHIDS AT OAKWOOD, WYLAM-ON-TYNE. 
OrcHIDs from the fine collection of Norman C. Cookson, Esq., Oakwood, 
Wylam-on-Tyne, are familiar to many readers of the Orchid Review from 
the choice exhibits which appear from time to time at the various meetings 
of the R.H.S., and a few notes on the collection itself, which the writer has 
just had the pleasure of seeing, will probably be interesting. 
There are three houses devoted to Odontoglossums, two facing north, 
and one span-roofed house. The latter has been specially constructed for 
growing the choice varieties during the winter months. They have just 
been removed to one of the north houses for the summer season. Here we 
saw a very fine display of bloom. We must particularly note a magnificent 
example of O. crispum Leonard Perfect, which has been divided twice since 
the last Temple Show, and is now producing flowers equal in size and finer 
in colour than before. The same remarks apply to the beautiful O. c. 
Fearnley Sander, which has also been twice divided during the same period. 
In this, the centre of the flower is crimson-purple, shading to violet-purple 
at the margin. The apices of the sepals and petals are suffused with violet- 
purple, reflected from the back. The lip is white, with a large yellow disc and 
a bright brown blotch covering the central area, and numerous smaller ones 
about the crest. O. c. Marie, O. c. Abner Hassall, and the shapely O. c. 
xanthotes Cooksoniz were making a fine show. The earliest of Mr. Chap- 
man’s home-raised Odontoglossums, O. X ardentissimum, is now flowering 
for the first time. In this house-alone there are upwards of 250 noteworthy 
plants, including a large number of distinct varieties of O. crispum. We 
also saw, temporarily placed in this house, some Phaius, P. X oakwoodi- 
ensis, P. x Phoebe, P. x P. superbus, and P. X Cooksoniz. 
In the other north house we saw O. crispum Sanderz just bursting into 
flower. This is one of the rarest and most beautiful of crispums. It is 
remarkable how this plant has developed, under the vigorous method of 
treatment adopted. We saw paintings made by Miss Roberts of this plant 
when it flowered in 1902, 1904, and 1906. In 1902 the colour was prac- 
tically broken on all the segments, and the flower about half the size of 
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