128 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



[March, 1916. 



CYMBIDIUM COOPERI AND 

 C. ROSEUM. 



BOTH Cymbidium Cooperi and C. roseum 

 came out of a batch of Cymbidiums 

 imported from Annam in 191 3 ; they 

 have been grown on in my collection since 

 that date and are now in flower for the second 

 time. The blooms are entirely different in 

 size, shape and colouring, the difference in 

 size being especially noticeable. That they 

 are either new species or natural hybrids is 

 beyond the slightest doubt ; that insigne is 

 one parent seems clear, but the other parent 

 is extremely difficult to place. 



Other well-known species of Cymbidium 

 that have been found growing and imported 

 with Cooperi and roseum are Ballianum, 

 erythrostylum, Parishii and Schroderi. It 

 would immediately occur to anyone that the 

 latter is the other parent of the plant we have 

 named Cooperi, but it happens that this cross 

 (insigne x Schroderi) has been raised artifi- 

 cially and recorded as glebelandense and 

 subsequently J. Davis. But every flower of 

 these crosses which I have seen has nothing 

 in common with Cooperi, and, therefore, it 

 must be safe to assume that there still remains 

 to be found and imported an unknown 

 Cymbidium which will prove to be the other 

 parent. 



C. Cooperi and C. roseum, together with 

 other unflowered plants, were acquired by me 

 in the imported state, and after being 

 thoroughly cleaned and potted up they 

 gradually developed into their present con- 

 dition. I particularly call attention to this 

 fact, as doubt has been cast upon the status 

 of the plants by a certain raiser who affirms 

 that they were home-raised seedlings. 



Amongst the original batch of plants, all 

 of which were picked out as being distinct in 

 appearance, are some which have not yet 

 bloomed, but are in spike, and even now show 

 distinct habits from the plants they were 

 imported with and sold as, i.e., C. insigne. 

 —Geo. Hnmil/on-Smi(h, Northside, Leigh 

 Woods, Bristol. 



CYMBIDIUMS. 



DISTRIBUTED as these plants are in 

 India, Burmah, Java, Australia, Mada- 

 gascar, etc., diverse characters and 

 species apparently widely separated may 

 naturally be expected in the genus. 



The Indian and Burmese (including Assam) 

 species : Lowianum, giganteum, eburneum, 

 grandiflorum (Hookerianum), Tracyanum and 

 elegans, as well as affine and Mastersii once 

 placed under a distinct genus Cyperorchis, 

 have all been in cultivation for many years, 

 Tracyanum being added to them some twenty 

 years ago. In addition, several minor species 

 of less floral importance : aloifolium, pen- 

 dulum, javanicum, canaliculatum, madidum, 

 sinense, cyperifolium, ionosmum, Devonianum, 

 tigrinum, etc., were known, but were and 

 are of botanical rather than horticultural 

 importance. 



The foregoing species present sufficient 

 differences in their growth, size, shape of 

 flowers and floral coloration to make the 

 genus an interesting study, but when one 

 takes into consideration the species from 

 Madagascar, rhodocheilum and Humblotii, 

 and the Javan species Huttonii, all of which 

 differ still more from the type, the limits of 

 the genus have to be greatly extended, and a 

 still further extension is necessary when the 

 latest introduced species — those obtained 

 from Annam — are brought under notice. 



These, in combination with some of the 

 older known species and hybrids, have given 

 and are giving us a new and most beautiful 

 class of hybrids, but, unfortunately, our know- 

 ledge of these species is as yet very meagre 

 and very much more information is required 

 before all can be clearly defined. 



About the year 1904 Messrs. Sander and 

 Sons, of St. Albans, obtained from Annam, 

 through Mr. Micholitz, their collector, a small 

 importation of Cymbidiums, and probably no 

 single importation of any one genus coming 

 from practically one locality has contained so 

 many species. Briefly, these were Sanderae, 

 Sanderi (insigne), Schroderi, erythrostylum, a 

 form of giganteum, a plant or two closely 

 allied to, if not the same as, Dayanum, and a 

 species now considered as Ballianum. 



