'<J4 



TH1-: ORCHID WORLD. 



[June, ICJ15. 



Oncidium phymalochilum. 



Onciditjm PHYMATOCHILUM. — This very 

 graceful species, often termed the Spider 

 Orchid, was first cultivated by the Rev. John 

 Clowes, of Broughton Hall, near Manchester, 

 and by Messrs. I^oddiges, of Hackney, about 

 the year 1843, neither of whom left any 

 record of its origin, which remained unknown 

 to science till ifs habitat was revealed by M. 

 Pinel, a French merchant trading m Brazil, 

 who collected it in the neighbourhood of 

 Novo Friburgo and sent plants to various 

 correspondents 111 France and Belgium, 

 including M. van Volxem, of Brussels, one 

 of whose plants was figured in Linden's 

 Pescatorca, published in i860. The flower 

 spikes attain a height of about four feet, and 

 carry numerous blooms, illustrations of which 

 are given above. 



5;S 



GOTT AND GOTTO.— As mistakes some- 

 times occur it is as well to point out that Gott 

 and Gotto do not refer to the same individual, 

 the former is the worthy representative of 

 Messrs. Sander and Sons, the latter was an 

 amateur residing at Hampstead Heath. 

 Hence we have Cymbidium Gottianum and 

 Laelio-Cattleva Gottoiana. 



Odontoglossum promerens album. — 

 Both crispum and Pescatorei, when considered 

 typically, are white, hence there has never 

 been any need to add the varietal name 

 album, but when these two species have been 

 used m the making of hybrids it has been the 

 custom to select those varieties having heavily 

 blotched flowers, more especially the crispum 

 parent, with the intention of carrying forward 

 this blotching into the hybrid. In the 

 majority of cases this has been effected, 

 notably m ardentissimum (crispum x Pesca- 

 torei), in eximium (crispum x ardentissimum) 

 and in promerens (crispum x eximium), the 

 flowers in each case showing varying degrees 

 of blotching. Mr. E. R. Ashton, of Broad- 

 lands, Tunbridge Wells, has flowered a 

 spotless variety of promerens, which differs so 

 considerably from the recognised blotched 

 type of this hybrid that it is necessary to 

 distinguish it by the varietal word album. 

 Thus it comes about that, after three 

 generations of breeding, we are obliged to 

 recognise both crispum and Pescatorei, or a 

 mixture of them, as it is in this case, under 

 the varietal name album, otherwise there 

 w ould be no means of distinguishing such an 

 interesting variety. In shape it leaves Httle 

 to be desired, while the labellum has the 

 characteristic pandurate form of Pescatorei. 



