November, 1913-] 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



31 



Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 and in nearly every mstance they have been 

 described as alba. Several members of the 

 Committee have recently come to the conclu- 

 sion that this is a matter requiring super- 

 vision, with which we quite agree. As an 

 example of the point at issue, we may mention 

 C. Hardyana alba, with either white or cream- 

 coloured sepals and petals and a crimson- 

 purple labellum. Now it has been suggested, 

 and there is a certain amount of truth in the 

 statement, that no one will ever produce a 

 true alba form of Hardyana, for the reason 

 that all the varieties of C. aurea so far seen 

 have coloured labellums, therefore, the name 

 alba may just as well be applied to the purest 

 albino flower that it will ever be possible to 

 produce. But true as this may be to-day we 

 cannot tell what the future will bring. At 

 one time no one ever expected that an 

 albino variety of C. Warscewiczii would be 

 discovered, yet we now have this in more 

 than one good plant. 



This reasoning may be equally applied to 

 all hybrids of which C. aurea is a parent, but 

 there are other hybrids in this section which 

 will certainly be produced in pure albino form, 

 consequently the term alba must be reserved 

 for these all-white varieties. 



From the foregoing remarks one can only 

 arrive at the conclusion that a new term is 

 required for varieties having pure white sepals 

 and petals and a coloured labellum, for they 

 are neither entitled to the word alba, nor can 

 they be classed in the somewhat inferior 

 albescens section. 



A suitable word appears to be albida, 

 meaning whitish, which has for long been 

 associated with Ljelia albida, a Mexican 

 species having white sepals and petals, but a 

 coloured labellum. 



The following example will make the 

 suggested arrangement quite clear: — Cattleya 

 Enid, a hybrid produced by crossing 

 Warscewiczii and Mossiae ; C. Enid albescens, 

 a very light tinted variety, not pure white ; 

 C. Enid albida, with pure white sepals and 

 petals, but a coloured labellum ; C. Enid 

 alba, the true albino flower, all the segments 

 absolutely pure white. 



CATTLEYA MOSSl/E AND 

 C. HARRISONIANA. 



I T would be almost impossible to discover 

 an Orchid collection which did not 

 contain several representatives of these 

 beautiful spring and summer-flowering 

 Cattleyas. There may be one or two 

 amateurs who, by specialising entirely in cool 

 house Orchids, have not any plants actually 

 under their care, but these individuals, like 

 many of the admiring visitors to the great 

 shows, are fully acquainted with the decorative 

 value of both species. 



One of the most interesting of present-day 

 facts concerning C. Mossiae is that the 

 collection of Mrs. Moss, of Otterspool, near 

 Liverpool, in which it first flowered about the 

 year 1838, has ever since been maintained, 

 first by her son Sir Thomas Moss, and subse- 

 quently by her grandson Sir John Edwards- 

 Moss, Bart., of Roby Hall, Torquay. In 

 Warner's celebrated work the Orchid Album, 

 1882-93, Mrs. Moss is referred to as one of 

 the earliest Orchid growers, while Messrs. 

 Veitch, in their Manual of Orchidaceous 

 Plants, 1887-94, state "the Orchid collection 

 at Otterspool is still maintained by her son. 

 Sir Thomas Moss, it is thence one of the 

 oldest in the country." Although it is 

 probable, but by no means certain, that the 

 original plants actually owned by Mrs. Moss 

 are not now in existence, the fact remains that 

 the present collection is one of the oldest in 

 the country. 



C. Mossiae was figured in the Botanical 

 Magazine of 1839, with the following descrip- 

 tion by Sir Wm. J. Hooker: — "We wish our 

 plate could do justice to this most magnificent 

 of all Orchideous plants. The flowers are 

 very considerably the largest yet known in 

 any of this superb family ; the colour is 

 equally striking, with which no art of the 

 pencil can attempt to vie, and we may 

 add that the fragrance is most powerful, 

 resembling that of Gymnadenia conopsea, but 

 it is much stronger. I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Mrs. Moss, of Otterspool, near 

 Liverpool, for the noble specimen here 

 figured, which was accompanied with a folio 



