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THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



[July, 1904. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM x CORADINEI MIRABILE. 



When the remarkable Odontoglossum crispum mirabile appeared in 1894, 

 in the collection of Baron Schroder, it was not known that O. crispum and 

 O. triumphans grew together. It was, however, clear that the plant was 

 not a simple variety of O. crispum, and the alternative was that it must be 

 a natural hybrid. It, however, came home as O. crispum, and the other 

 parent must be something that grew with it. Nothing then known from 

 Bogota agreed so well with the plant's characters, and I accordingly 

 described it as O. X Coradinei mirabile (0. R., ii. p. 198), though recognis- 

 ing that it was much liner than anything which had yet appeared. Just 

 previously an Odontoglossum had been described and figured as a natural 

 hybrid between O. crispum and O. sceptrum, under the name of O. X 

 harvengtense (L. Lind. in Jouvn. des Ovclu, v. p. 7 ; Lindenia, x., t. 678), but 

 as on comparison I found unmistakable evidence that O. triumphans was one 

 parent, I referred the hybrid to O. X excellens as a variety (O. R., iii., pp. 

 112, 201). This plant flowered in the collection of the Compte de Bousies, 

 at Harvengt. In 1898 an -Odontoglossum, which had been artificially 

 raised by M. Ch. \ uylsteke, of Loochristi, Ghent, from O. crispum ? and 

 O. triumphans $ flowered for the first time, and was described under the 

 name of O. X loochristiense (O. R., vi., p. 41). A little later further evidence 

 of O. X harvengtense came to hand in the shape of a plant which flowered 

 with Messrs. Charlesworth & Co. out of an importation of O. crispum. It 

 was described as apparently only a distinct form of O. triumphans, and the 

 question was raised whether the latter grew anywhere intermixed with O. 

 crispum (O. R., p. 167), a point which was almost immediately answered 

 in the affirmative by M. Fl. Claes (/. c, pp. 327, 328). Then was 

 noted the occurrence of O. X loochristiense as a wild hybrid, in the collec- 

 tion of W. Thompson, Esq., Walton Grange, Stone (/. c, p. 355), and since 

 then a good many others have appeared, doubtless from the locality where 

 O. crispum and O. triumphans grow together. No less than nine named 

 varieties were recorded in these pages in 1901 and six in the following year. 

 We have also the information that it is a particular form of O. triumphans, 

 known as variety latisepalum, that grows in the Bogota district with O. 

 crispum {O. R., x., p. 250). Lastly we have the record of an additional 

 batch of artificially raised hybrids in the collection of W. Thompson, Esq., 

 of Stone, five of which have already flowered (0. R., xii., p. 61). 



The new facts almost compel a reconsideration of the question, and it is 

 now evident that O. X harvengtense and O. X loochristiense are forms of 

 the same hybrid, and that. the former is much the earlier name. The record 

 of parentage must be amended, as it is clear that O. triumphans, not O. 

 sceptrum, is the second parent. O. X Coradinei mirabile was again exhibited 



