250 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [AucusT, 1908. 
in a warm, moist and shady house, with due precaution as to cleanliness, for 
thrip and red spider soon work havoc among the foliage if allowed to 
establish themselves. A layer of moss round the base of the pots is found 
conducive to that degree of humidity in the atmosphere that the plants like. 
Care must, however be taken to avoid over-watering during the winter 
months. 
The species was described by Reichenbach towards the end of 1873, 
under the name of Odontoglossum Roezlii (Gard. Chron. 1873, pp. 1302, 1393, 
fig. 269), being dedicated to its discoverer, Benedict Roezl, and it is probably 
the most beautiful Orchid which bears his name. It is not a little curious to 
find Reichenbach concluding his description with the query—‘“‘ Can it bea 
mule between O. vexillarium and O. Phalznopsis?” Just previously he 
had seen a plant in flower, in the establishment of Mr. Wm. Bull, at Chelsea, 
which plant received a First-class Certificate from the R.H.S. on September 
17th, 1873 (l.c., p. 1277). Three days later Mr. Day saw it and sketched it 
(Orch. Draw., xviii. t. 25), at the same time remarking that Mr. Bull only 
received a single plant alive, which he had divided into two, and which he 
believed were the only ones in Europe. This plant may be regarded as the 
type of the species. 
Messrs. Backhouse & Son, of York, however, very soon obtained it, for 
a week after the original description was published, a note from them 
appeared, commencing “ We enclose dried specimen of Odontoglossum 
Roezlii, received along with some living plants of it, from our collector in 
South America” (Gard. Chron., 1873, p, 1334). Some of these were 
acquired by Mr. Day, and one flowered in September, 1874, being then 
painted (Orch. Draw. xvili. t- 49), and on November 2nd he added— 
‘“‘ Flowered a white variety of this species. . . . It is a lovely thing. 
Since September I have flowered several plants [of the species}. In April, 
1876, he further remarked that he had had many spikes of four flowers each, 
and one of five. Another handsome form was drawn on April 6th, 1877 
(I.c. xxi., t. 37), when Mr. Day remarked—“ It is a most useful thing—for 
fifteen months I was never without flowers of it.” 
In 1877 Chesterton brought some cases of good plants to Messrs. James 
Veitch & Sons, at Chelsea, but, they remark, “did not divulge the true 
locality in which they had been gathered, and in the following year Roezl’s 
nephew, Edward Klaboch, sent some plants to Europe, and since that time 
it has been frequently imported ” (Man. Orch. viii. p- 106). 
Some particulars relating to its original discovery were given by 
M. Roezl about ten years after the event (Orchidophile, 1883, p. 476) 
‘Towards the end of March, 1873,” he remarks, “I was going down the 
little river Dagua, which flows into the Pacific Ocean. Like all the streams 
which flow into the ocean from the western Cordillera of New Granada, the 
