198 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [Fuy, 19¢3- 
with O. gloriosum, O. Lindleyanum, O. luteopurpureum, and: ‘Gz 
Hunnewellianum, and natural hybrids with each of these have been 
recognised. If they are fertile (and we have good reason to believe that 
they are) these hybrids may again cross with the parent species, and with 
each other, until the characters get hopelessly mixed. We know 
approximately what each of these species is like, but we do not know the 
absolute limit of variation—certainly not in the case of O. crispum. We 
import crispums by the thousand, and when the plants flower they are not 
all true. We easily recognise and exclude the species above named, also 
the hybrids, x Andersonianum, X Coradinei, X Wilckeanum, and X 
Adriane. The residuum we call O. crispum, but it is still a polymorphic 
lot, and in some of the forms we trace resemblances to some of the 
recognised hybrids, and perhaps suggest that they may be secondary hybrids. 
But what more can we do? One thing, at least, is possible, and that is to 
implore Mr. Cookson, able hybridist as he is, to cross a typical crispunt 
with good typical forms of O. x Andersonianum and O. x Wilckeanum 
(or the reverse, or both). The examination of a few flowers of such an 
origin would go a long way towards answering Mr. Cookson’s question. 
I may add that I have seen flowers which to all appearance were pure 
O. crispum, though they had the lateral teeth of the crest somewhat 
developed, and this one mentioned by Mr. Cookson may be such a form. 
This, of course, does not prove it to be of pure descent, and it would be 
interesting to know what O. crispum is like in a locality where it grows by 
itself, and where the question is not complicated by hybridity. 
R. A. ROLFE. 
a 
DENDROBIUM FALCONERI, 
I ENCLOSE you a photograph of Dendrobium Falconeri, which, though 
only a small plant, had fifty blooms on. I think it might be interesting to 
reproduce this, as so many of the Orchid growers in this part of England 
say they cannot flower it at all freely. The plant in question, together 
with a fellow one, was grown with other Dendrobes in a warm house last 
summer, then cooled off in the autumn, and during the winter all water was 
withheld from it, and the plants almost frozen, with the result that on 
bringing the plants back to the warm house this spring innumerable buds 
began to appear. The photo was taken by myself when the bloom was 
partly past its best. 
Epwarp P. COLLeETT. 
[The photograph represents a well grown little specimen, but is hardly 
suitable for reproduction, partly, no doubt, because of the circumstance 
mentioned. It isa common experience with growers to find this species 
