lOO 



IHE (JRCHll) WORLD. 



'I'cbruarv, 11)14 



OUONTOGLOSSUM N/EVIUM. — Like many 

 other species O. nasvium is now becoming 

 exceedingly scarce. In days gone by, before 

 the advent of hybrids, it was frequently met 

 with, and Messrs. Sander at one time culti- 

 vated over a thousand plants, these making a 

 most fascinating sight when flowering during 

 the month of Ma)-. It has more than once 

 been confused with odoratum and gloriosum, 

 from which it chiefly differs in having a white 

 ground. The following interesting note 

 occurs in Sander's Rcichenbachia : — "There 

 is a great mistake attached to the introduction 

 of Odontoglossum naevium. It was without 

 doubt brought to Europe about the year 1845, 

 and no other plants arrived until we received 

 an importation in 1885, so for some forty 

 years the plant was lost. We think it was 

 originally introduced by RoUissons, and it 

 probably came home from a correspondent m 

 Columbia. After an ineffectual search during 

 a period of twenty years we were at last 

 rewarded for our labours, resulting in the 

 successful importation of a large number of 

 these plants. An error, easily explained, 

 arose through the fact that m a dried state 

 O. nasvium much resembles O. odoratum 

 album, and we believe that neither Funck nor 

 Wallis, or any other collectors who sent home 

 dried specimens, ever saw the true plant, but 

 simply sent home the white form of O. 

 odoratum. We will not say that Lindley was 

 purposely guided wrong when he gave his 

 description of the plant, but certain it is that 

 no majus form of nasvium exists, and that 

 what he describes as such was simply O. 

 odoratum album. Nor could Sir Robert 

 Schomburgk have ever seen this Orchid, as he 

 did not travel near the only spot where it has 

 ever been collected, and Sir Robert, therefore, 

 cannot have been the sender of the plant 

 which flowered with Messrs. Loddiges." Onl)- 

 two hybrids have been artificially produced 

 from this species, and both are in the Rose- 

 field collection. Mr. Crawshay has kindly 

 sent flowers of each, the first O. Waltraute 

 (njEvium x Harryanum), of which onl}' ;i 

 single plant exists ; and the second O. Nerissa 

 (n^vium x crispum). Both hybrids happen to 

 be in flower during the same period, and there 



is little chance of mistaking the n^vium 

 influence. 



II % "^^ 



Dendrobium crumenatum. — Mr. H. N. 

 Ridley, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, 

 I you, m a paper of the flora of Singapore, 

 gives the following interesting account of this 

 species: — "Very few plants have a definite 

 flowering month. A large number flower 

 more or less regularly throughout the year. 

 Others flower at regular periods three or four 

 times a year, almost every plant of a gi\'en 

 kind flowering simultaneously in the district. 

 This is best known in the case of the Pigeon 

 Orchid, Dendrobium crumenatum. In this 

 plant the flowers are produced at periods of a 

 little over a month or two months. The exact 

 da\- differs m different parts of the peninsula, 

 but m each district they all appear on the 

 same day, and it is remarkable that plants 

 brought to Singapore, even from as far north 

 as Siam, open their flowers on the day for 

 Singapore, and not for that of Siam. It is not 

 rare, however, to find certain plants of Pigeon 

 Orchid which do not flower on the regular 

 day, but have a distinct day, which they 

 appear to keep with equal regularity. A 

 curious fact is that another species of 

 Dendrobium (D. criniferum) invariably 

 flowers in Singapore on the day preceding 

 that of D. crumenatum, whenever that 

 happens to be. It might be thought that the 

 weather in the district in which the plant was 

 growing was the influencing agent, but this 

 appears to have but little effect on the 

 Orchids. On one occasion, December 5th, 

 1893, the Pigeon Orchids developed their 

 flowers so far that they were obviously ready 

 to open them on that day, but an extra- 

 ordinarily heavy rain retarded them and the 

 flowers ojjened the next day ; but, in cases 

 like this, the weather previous to the flowering 

 does not seem to make any difference to the 

 date of the flowering. It can easily be 

 understood that it is very important to a 

 plant that all should open on the same day, 

 in order that they ma\' be cross-fertilised by 

 the insects that visit them, and this is 



