Till': ORCHID WORLD. 



[March, 1914. 



ihe oldest lueniljcrs of the Jury of the Ghent 

 Ouinquennial Exhibitions, and in rcco^^nition 

 of his vahiable ser\ iees to horticulture he was 

 one of the first sixty to recene the much 

 coveted Victoria Medal of Honour i^ranted 

 by the Royal Horticultural Society. Having 

 fulfilled a long period of hard and honourable 

 work, the thought of retirement has come 

 upon him, but with a man so keenly interested 

 in his duties this is more easily said than 

 done. His name appears on the Committee 

 list of the International Botanical Conference 

 to be held in 191 5. 



The district of Harrow has much to thank 

 Mr. O'Brien for. He is Vice-president of the 

 Harrow Conservative and Unionist Associa- 

 tion, Vice-chairman of the Urban C'ouncil, 

 Chairman of the Recreation Grounds Com- 

 mittee, and for many years Overseer of the 

 Poor of the Parish, and a member of the 

 Burial Board. 



His personal qualities are highly esteemed 

 by a large circle of friends, who always find 

 him willing to help, especially a young 

 amateur, and who admire his straightforward 

 and outspoken manner. The Gardening 

 charities have largely benefited by the able 

 manner in which he has brought forward their 

 claims. Few men have such an extensive and 

 ready memory, and the Scientific and Orchid 

 Committees of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society have received valuable assistance 

 from his wide knowledge of botanical Orchids. 

 He has been for upwards of thirty years the 

 Orchid expert of The Gardeners CJironiele. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM LAREDO. 



Edwardii X Lawrenceanum (triumphans X R olfeae) . 



Here, again, the Edwardii completel)' 

 overpowers all the coloration of Lawrence- 

 anum ; the whole of the sepals and petals is 

 uniform brownish-purple, their form being- 

 starry. 



The lip alone deviates from the solid by 

 having a narrow rosy-white margin at the 

 apex only, otherwise it is solid crimson- 

 purple. This just shows the meagre influence 

 of the white lip of Rolfese when opposed first 



to triumphans, which turned it \ellow, and 

 then to Edwardii, which converted both white 

 and yellow into purple. It has the usual 

 orange crest. 



In size it is larger than the primary hybrids 

 of Edwardii with a species. The hybrids we 

 have produced from Edwardii are certainly a 

 great disaiipointment taken as a whole, but 

 there is evidence that the secondaries from 

 the best of the primaries will produce some 

 fine things of extremely gorgeous colouring. 

 I raised this, and first bloomed it in January. 

 de B. Crawshay, February 161/1, iQi-/.. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM HECATE. 



crispuiii tiiuinpliaiis Hallii Harryanuin 



harvcngtense Crawsliajamim 



I I 



1 



Hecate. 



I remember Mr. F. Sander many years ago 

 saying : " Make lips, get a good hp first of 

 all, and then build the sepals and petals round 

 it." This flower carries out that dictum 

 absolutely ; the lip is beautiful, the sepals and 

 petals are . 



The whole flower is of light yellow ground, 

 the sepals and petals three-quarters covered 

 light sienna-brown with yellow tips, but of 



the form explained by the above written. 



The lip is i i x i inch, also yellow grounded, 

 having an arrow head-shaped blotch covering 

 the whole centre ; a narrow line of yellow 

 separates it from a border of brown that runs 

 down the lip's sides from the base, and which 

 in turn is margined b)- )'ellow ; the base of 

 the lip is spotted under the crest. The 

 column is creamy-white. 



Hallii has controlled the sepals and petals, 

 and also almost entirely covered the apical 

 half of the white hp of Harryanum, which is 

 evidence of what a strong pure species it is ; 

 and as it grows almost alone and far removed 

 from crispum and its friends it necessarily 

 must be more potent in its descendant's 

 characters. I raised Hecate, the first flower 

 opening in January. 



de B C razi'sliay, l-ehriiary lOtli, nji /. 



