﻿THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



[October, 1904. 



Maron, Brunoy. In Class 4, for a collection of fifty varieties of Orchids, 

 M. Maurice Verdonck, of Ghent, was awarded the first prize, the same 

 exhibitor gaining a first prize for a collection of twenty Orchids of botanical 

 interest, and a second prize for twenty-five Orchids (distinct varieties) in 

 flower. The first prize in Class 14 for a collection of thirty Cypripediums 

 and Selenipediums was awarded to M. Draps-Dom, of Laeken, near 

 Brussels. M. Peeters gained an extra prize for a group of Cypripediums, 

 the first prize for a group of Vanda ccerulea, and four first prizes for speci- 

 men Orchids, while M. Ch. Maron also gained first and second prizes for 

 specimen Orchids (their names not being given). 



RODRIGUEZIA VENUSTA. 



This beautiful species is now flowering profusely in several collections, but 

 not always under its correct name, and it would appear that in some way 

 an importation has been distributed either unnamed or wrongly named, for 

 we have met with it labelled both R. fragrans and R. Candida, which species 

 are quite distinct. The fact is R. venusta seems to have been largely lost 

 sight of in gardens during recent years. It was originally described by 

 Lindley, in 1837, under the name of Burlingtonia venusta, from a Brazilian 

 drawing made by Descourtilz (Dot. Rt;«\, xxiii. , sub. t. 1027), and afterwards 

 figured in the Sertum Orchidaceum (t. 2) from the same source. Lindley 

 remarked : — " This beautiful species is remarkable for the delicious odour 

 which its flowers exhale of Jonquil or of some Water-lily. It grows 

 among the topmost branches of the Cedrela, in the districts of Morro- 

 Quemado and Macahe, and near the city of Bom Jesus de Bananal, blos- 

 soming in October." It is not quite certain when it was introduced to 

 cultivation, but a few flowers are preserved in Lindley's Herbarium, which 

 were received from Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting, in May. 1846. In 1863 

 Reichenbach changed the name to Rodriguezia venusta, on the ground 

 that the genus Burlingtonia was not distinct {Walp. Ann., vi., p. 694), 

 hence the name which it at present bears. The species is extremely flori- 

 ferous, and there are three plants now flowering at Kew, in baskets, two of 

 which bear each over twenty spikes and the third over three dozen, while 

 Lindley, when originally describing the species, remarked — it " may be 

 literally said to sink beneath its long heavy clusters of snow-white blossoms 

 just tinged with pink." It is a very beautiful, floriferous, and fragrant 

 species, and its nearest ally is the equally beautiful R. pubescens, a plant 

 which was figured at page 337 of the first volume of this work. It should 

 be grown in baskets in a light position in the Cattleya house. 



