SEPTEMBER, igog.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 269 
&c., are very pretty when grown in pans or baskets, and the miniature 
flowers are a great contrast to the more showy varieties. 
OpONTOGLossuMs which have been newly potted should have the stages 
and floors damped several times daily until they get re-established, and 
they should also be sprayed overhead whenever the weather is good. Do 
not allow the new compost to become dust dry, or as much harm will be 
done as with over-watering. Water whenever a plant is dry, and give it 
plenty, not just damp the top and leave the bottom dry, or the bulbs will 
soon shrivel. The house or the end of it in which the newly-potted plants 
are staged should not be so freely ventilated until the plants get established 
again. 
A REVISION OF THE GENUS CYCNOCHES. 
THE last issue of the Kew Bulletin contains a paper by Mr. R. A. Rolfe, 
bearing the above title, giving an historical account of the genus Cycnoches, 
accompanied by figures showing the sexes in the two distinct sections which 
it contains, and an enumeration of species. A summary of the paper may 
be interesting. 
For many years the genus proved an inexplicable puzzle to botanists. 
Soon after the original species was described, Lindley recorded the 
occurrence of a second form, which he had no doubt was a second species 
until both forms were produced on the same plant. A few years later a 
similar phenomenon was observed in a second species, and the only 
suggestion offered was that the genus was in a so-called sportive condition, 
as in the allied genus Catasetum. 
The genus was established by Lindley, in 1832, upon a plant which had 
been sent from Surinan by Lance to Messrs. Loddiges, and which shortly 
afterwards flowered in their nursery, and was called Cycnoches Loddigesii. 
The generic name was given in allusion to the gracefully curved column, 
resembling the neck of a swan. 
Four years later, when speaking of the curious behaviour of the genus 
Catasetum, Lindley mentioned a Cycnoches which had been sent to him by 
Mr. Wilmer, of Oldfield, near Birmingham, which greatly differed from C. 
Loddigesii, especially in the very short column, broader, shorter sepals, and 
in being scentless. This he had no doubt was a distinct species, and called 
it C. cucullata. But in the following autumn a plant of Cycnoches in the 
garden of the Horticultural Society produced from opposite sides of the 
same stem two racemes, one showing the well-known fragrant flowers of 
C. Loddigesii, and the other the scentless flowers of the new C. cucullata. 
In 1837 Cycnoches ventricosum was described, from a plant which had 
been introduced from Guatemala by Skinner, and flowered in Mr. Bateman’s 
collection at Knypersley. The figure showed an inflorescence of five 
