THE ORCHID WORLD. 



Vol. 6. No. 9. 



August, 1916. 



NOTES 



L/ELIA ANCEPS HiLLlANA. — A fine speci- 

 men of this plant was exhibited by the late 

 Sir Trevor Lawrence at the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society, February loth, 1885. It was 

 grown on a flat trellis, about a yard square, 

 and bore no fewer than 24 spikes. This 

 variety has rather narrow white sepals and 

 petals, and a hp tinged with rose. 



L.-ELIA MAJALIS. — This beautiful Mexican 

 species is so seldom cultivated with any 

 measure of success that but few amateurs 

 have ever seen its large rosy-lilac blooms, 

 some 6 inches in diameter, with the expansive 

 front lobe of the labellum prettily veined with 

 lavender-pink upon a silvery-white ground. 

 Mr. L. D. Hyland, of Woodlands, St. Albans, 

 cultivates it with considerable success, and a 

 flower which he kindly sends measures more 

 than 7 inches in width, with all the segments 

 developed to an extent rarely seen in this 

 refractory subject. In its native country it 

 has been found by one collector " growing on 

 oaks, and especially in places where the wind 

 is constantly blowing," so doubtless this 

 species likes an exposed position. Mr. 

 Hyland grows his plants on oak blocks 

 exposed to full sunshine, and it is to this 

 special treatment that they respond so readily 

 when the flowering season arrives in each 

 successive year. 



^ ^ 



CiRRHOPETALUM ROBUSTUM. — A remark- 

 able example of the genus Cirrhopetalum was 

 seen in Messrs. Sander and Sons' exhibit at 

 the Holland House Show, 1916, this being a 

 superb plant of C. robustum, carrying 10 

 strong spikes, each with 12 — 15 large flowers 



of greenish-yellow colour tinged with purplish- 

 red in the centre ; the fleshy lip deep red- 

 purple, and the column dull yellow. The 

 Orchid Committee awarded a Cultural 

 Commendation. An illustration and descrip- 

 tion of this species appeared in the Orchid 

 World, Vol. V., page 235. 



U ist ^ 



Cockroaches and Orchid Paintings. 

 — On the day preceding the sale of the late 

 Mr. J. Gurney Fowler's Orchids a number of 

 paintings were arranged along the corridor of 

 the Orchid houses in order that intending 

 purchasers might obtain an idea of the fine 

 varieties offered. Greatly to the surprise of 

 the early visitors on the morning of the sale 

 it was discovered that several cockroaches 

 had been busy during the night devouring the 

 purple pigment, which they selected in 

 preference to other colours. Several Odonto- 

 glossums had lost much of their purple 

 blotching, while among the Cattleyas portions 

 of the richly coloured labellums had become 

 almost white. Although it is known that these 

 beetles frequently devour portions of the real 

 flowers, we do not suggest that they believed 

 the paintings, realistic as they were, to be 

 alive also, more possibly they found some- 

 thing agreeable to their taste in the purple 

 pigment and accordingly spent the night in 

 feasting. 



^ ^ ^ 

 Oncidium hastatum. — Flowers of this 

 rare species come from Mr. Walter R. Scott, 

 South Moor, Stanley, Durham. O. hastatum 

 was first introduced from Mexico by Messrs. 

 Loddiges in 1837, a few years later it was 

 described by Bateman in his " Orchidaceae of 

 Mexico and Guatemala," although under the 



VOL. VI. 



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