250 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
is by no means advisable, and it is of little use to raise plants from poor 
varieties.- Seedlings, however, do sometimes spring up even under hap- 
hazard treatment. As some structures owing to modern improvements are 
more suitable for the cultivation of the old plants, so are they likewise more 
suitable for the germination of the seedlings. 
An insect attacking the roots of some Orchids, principally Cattleya, and 
known as Isosoma Orchidearum is now attacking the new growing roots of 
C. Percivalliana, causing them to become clubbed. It is not really a very 
dangerous foe, but it is advisable nevertheless to cut off the infested roots, 
in order to prevent their breeding, for it is not desirablé to be visited 
with a large number of these pests. 
~ Catasetums and Mormodes should be removed after blooming to the 
Mexican House, and there suspended, as the light and air will ripen the 
growths, without which they are given to deterioration. They are really 
good serviceable Orchids when well grown, coming in flower as they do at 
this somewhat dull Orchid season. 
“Is Cattleya gigas Sanderiana the free-flowering variety of C. gigas?” 
This is rather a curious question, and makes one deplore the fact that there 
are sO many names-to one species. The question, ‘‘ What is the difference 
between C. gigas and its variety Sanderiana?” has frequently been put to me, 
to which I have invariably replied that the latter is simply an improvement 
on the former in point of colouring matter, such as is the case as regards C. 
gigas Burfordiensis, C. gigas Imperialis, and others. They are all first-rate 
varieties, and no doubt at one time were very rare and costly, but thanks to 
the extensive importations of late years, the gocd varieties are now very 
plentiful, and he who purchases unflowered plants must chance their being 
good, bad, or indifferent. The idea, however, of C. g. Sanderiana being the 
free-flowering form may be dismissed. Some are free and some are shy to 
flower, some of the most prolific are the worst varieties, while the most shy 
are the best, and sometimes it is quite the reverse. Why it should be the 
nature of one plant to be shy and another free I cannot explain, but it is so, 
and is noticeable in many species. The finest variety of Lelia anceps that 
I have ever seen absolutely refuses to bloom, unless suspended near the 
glass in full sunshine, while others may flower regularly every year treated 
as an ordinary intermediate-house Orchid, and the same may be noticed 
amongst the white forms of Lelia anceps. With Leelia albida, with Lelia 
autumunalis, in fact, with nearly all the species of Lelia and Cattleya, C. 
Mendelii not excepted, the same thing occurs. It may also be noticed in 
other genera. For instance, I have bloomed plants of Vanda teres freely 
enough when grown in the East Indian House, and given a liberal amount 
of sun and water, while others have been placed close to the glass, fully 
exposed to the sun, and everything tried to induce them to flower without 
avail. Again, some of the Coelogynes could be mentioned as offenders in 
