January, 1914-] 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



«5 



with the ever-increasing mass of material. 

 His descriptions and comparisons were often 

 singularly felicitous, his knowledge of detail 

 enormous, but lacking co-ordination and 

 precision. He never gave us in a compen- 

 dious form a complete synopsis of the genera 

 and species. It is greatly to be hoped that 

 his immense collections and notes will fall 

 into competent hands, at Kew if possible, 

 for collation and revision — a task that will, 

 however, require years of concentration, for 

 his publications are not only extremely 

 numerous, but scattered through a wide range 

 of publications m almost all European 

 languages." 



The Orchid world was startled when the 

 Professor's Will was published, for in it he 

 stated : — " My herbarium and my botanical 



library, etc., accrue to the Imperial Hof 

 Museum in Vienna, under the condition that 

 the preserved Orchids and drawings of 

 Orchids shall not be exhibited before twenty- 

 five years from the date of my death have 

 elapsed. Until this time my collection shall 

 be preserved in sealed cases." 



Some idea of this immense collection of 

 valuable material may be gained from the fact 

 that no less than three days were occupied in 

 taking it to the railway station, and it filled 

 four large waggons. No less than 59 cases, 

 of which 26 were filled with the dried 

 specimens and 33 for the books, were used. 

 There were also 134 large boxes filled with 

 various materials, and 1,149 packets of 

 printed notes and manuscripts accompanied 

 the dried Orchids. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM EDWARDII AND ITS HYBRIDS. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM EDWARDII was 

 discovered by Edward Klaboch, in 

 whose honour it was named by 

 Reichenbach during the year 1878. It is a 

 native of the high Andes of Ecuador, where 

 it grows at an elevation of about 7,000 feet 

 in a damp and cool atmosphere. One of the 

 most easily recognised of all the Odonto- 

 glossums, it at once becomes a favourite with 

 every lover of the cool-house section of plants. 

 The erect, tall spikes carry numerous, one 

 might almost say hundreds, of small violet- 

 purple flowers having a yellow crest in the 

 centre. Taken individually the flowers are 

 insignificant, but when viewed in hundreds, as 

 they are often seen on well-cultivated plants, 

 the effect is excellent. 



Very few plants are so easily cultivated and 

 flowered as this species, and when the 

 hybridist commenced the raising of hybrid 

 Odontoglossums he was more than satisfied 

 with the rapid and vigorous manner in which 

 the seed germinated. This remarkable 

 specific strength is beneficial so far as its 

 power of imparting rapid growth is concerned, 

 but the hybrids have produced flowers of a 

 smaller nature than was originally anticipated, 



although when one really considers the small- 

 ness of an Edwardii bloom the result is not 

 so surprising. 



The ambition of the hybridist is to carry 

 forward the rich Edwardii colour into future 

 generations, and to do this as well as produce 

 a large fiower is no easy accomplishment. 

 This ideal flower will require many years of 

 patient waiting and skilful work before it is 

 satisfactorily created. The first generation of 

 hybrids shows but little variation, owing to 

 the overpowering influence of the Edwardii, 

 and it will not be until subsequent ones have 

 been produced that we shall see the real value 

 and effect of their component species. 



The following is a chronological list of all 

 the Edwardii hybrids. The majority of them 

 have been created by using Edwardii as the 

 seed-bearing parent ; as a pollen parent it 

 has been practically useless. It does not 

 therefore follow that the parents mentioned 

 below are in any particular order, for although 

 the Edwardii is placed first, as the mother 

 parent generally is, there may be a few 

 instances in which it has acted as the pollen 

 parent. However, the list gives both parents, 

 and the names of the various raisers or 



