june, 1914.] 



THK ORCrilD WORLD. 



195 



Orchid Paintings. — While fully agreeing 

 with what has recently been written 

 concerning this subject I feel there is one 

 other point which has not been mentioned, 

 and although it may be a trivial matter for 

 members of the Committee, it is, nevertheless, 

 one of importance to the Fellows in general. 

 I refer to the great difficulty experienced in 

 determining which is the best variety of any 

 particular species or hybrid. The R.H.S. 

 grants two awards — the F.C.C. and the A.M. 

 — and one naturally expects that the F.C.C. 

 plants should be much superior to those given 

 an A.M., but, unfortunately, this does not 

 always appear to be the case. What is the 

 reason ? The Committee has a meritorious 

 plant placed before them and awards a 

 F.C.C, and a painting is duly made and put 

 away for future reference. Sooner or later a 

 second plant of the same kind comes before 

 them and the painting is used as a guide in 

 determining the award to be granted. If the 

 flower of the new plant is inferior to that of 

 the painting it is quickly passed, but if 

 slightly finer an A.M. is generally granted, 

 while should it be considerably superior, 

 which, however, rarely happens, then a F.C.C. 

 may be awarded. Thus it comes about that 

 in many cases an A.M. variety is better than 

 a F.C.C. one. I have been told that the date 

 of the award should always be considered, 

 but this is evidently a forgotten point, and 

 even if known there is no telling whether a 

 subsequent award has been granted. Not 

 so long ago I attended an auction sale in 

 which two varieties of the same hybrid were 

 offered ; the one had received an A.M., the 

 other a F.C.C. Naturally enough I selected 

 and paid more for the latter plant, but subse- 

 quently discovered that the A.M. variety was 

 in reality much the finer. I never thought of 

 ascertaining the date beforehand, although 

 subsequent enquiry showed that the F.C.C. 

 variety was several years older. I can only 

 form but one opinion regarding this matter, 

 and that is that the awards are merely prizes 

 for the day, and have no true comparative 

 value whatever. What we require is a hall- 

 mark that will show the genuine merit of the 

 phnt—F.R.HS 



VanJa sua vis. 



VaNDA SUAVIS. — This noble species, a 

 native of Java, was originally described by 

 Lindley in 1848, since when it has rarely 

 failed to be an attractive plant in almost 

 every collection where warm-house Orchids 

 are grown. The adjoining illustration shows 

 a remarkably fine specimen in the collection 

 of .Sir John Edwards-Moss, Bart., Roby Hall, 

 Torquay. So well has it been cultivated that 

 when viewed from a distance it has the 

 appearance of an evergreen shrub ; and when 

 the photograph was taken this Spring it 

 carried 10 spikes with a total of 96 blooms. 

 In common with other members of the genus 

 the petals have the peculiarity of twisting at 

 their base, so much so that they are almost 

 reversed, the hinder part, which is unspotted, 

 being visible. As its specific name denotes, 

 it is very sweet smellitig, an additional charm 

 which renders it of value to many collections. 

 When this species is well cultivated its 

 recurved dark green leaves cover the stem 

 from apex to base, and in that condition it 

 forms a decorative object of considerable 



