200 



THK ORCHID WORLD. 



[June, 1914. 



Chelsea Show last year ; the parentage is 

 said to be Mossi^ Reineckiana x aurea ; the 

 sepals and petals are absolutely pure white, 

 so that the yellow of the aurea has been 

 wiped out by the Reineckiana, and the lip a 

 glorified aurea. 



To return, however, to my second cross 

 — the luteopurpureum Vuylstekeanum x 

 triumphans aureum (^O. Jorisianum). Our 

 recent experience with the excellens had not 

 made me very hopeful of getting any better 

 result, so far as keeping the pure yellow 

 colour, with the cross. I had lost all faith in 

 the triumphans aureum, and thought that the 

 fault lay there, and that it was not breeding 

 true. The spike is now open and the flowers 

 are all one could hope for, a pure yellow 

 ground blotched with a darker yellow, not a 

 trace of brown or any other sign of reversion 

 to type. The shape is abominable, but that 

 was to be expected. Nothing" but a miracle 

 could give shape to the hybrid of two such 

 parents as triumphans aureum and luteo- 

 purpureum Vuylstekeanum. Still we did in 

 this case get what we started out for, and 

 that's something when you go a-hybridising. 



F. Menteith Ogilvie. 



XANTHIC ODONTOGLOSSUMS. 



SOME few years have now elapsed since 

 the commencement of the interest 

 which has been taken in blotched 

 Odontoglossums of the crispum type. Many 

 cultivators well remember how the discovery 

 of a spotted variety of crispum was eagerly 

 awaited, and how, by good growing, the spots 

 increased in size and gave additional value to 

 the plant. Many weak and starved plants of 

 the spotted type were purchased by skilled 

 growers, who in the course of a few years 

 brought them to a vigorous habit of growth, 

 resulting in an accentuation of the spotting, 

 frequently to such a degree that spotted 

 forms became blotched varieties. All this, 

 however, was entirely concerned with various 

 tints of rose- and crimson-purple. Amateurs 

 and trade growers alike were then so 



intensely absorbed in the subject that they 

 took but little notice of any other varieties of 

 crispum. But there is fashion in all things. 

 After a time some of the keenest growers, 

 becoming tired of their blotched crispums, 

 sought for other charms, and thenceforth 

 was started a new and spreading interest 

 in the pure white and allied forms of 

 Odontoglossums. 



There are several varieties of crispum 

 xanthotes, their merit depending on the width 

 of the segments and the amount of spotting 

 and its brightness. The origin of the spots 

 IS no doubt due to hybrid influence, and their 

 yellow nature to albinoism, or lack of the 

 usual purple pigment. Pescatorei does not 

 appear to have yielded anything of a xanthic 

 nature, but there are pure white forms, and 

 these mated with yellow-spotted crispums 

 give favourable results, known as armain- 

 villierense xanthotes. When these hybrids 

 are crossed with crispums of similar nature 

 the spotting is accentuated and xanthic 

 eximiums are produced. 



The general opinion that primary hybrids 

 show but little variation does not hold good 

 in the case of a batch of armainvillierense 

 xanthotes raised by Messrs. Charlesworth. 

 Two distinct kinds were produced. Some 

 follow closely the crispum habit, with its 

 straight spike of roundish flowers ; the others 

 resemble Pescatorei in growth and carry 

 slender branching spikes of narrower flowers. 



History repeats itself, and doubtless it will 

 do so with Odontoglossums. In the near 

 future we shall find an interest being taken 

 in the improvement of the yellow-spotted 

 forms, and cultivators will endeavour to 

 produce a similar improvement to that carried 

 out in the purple-spotted varieties. As far as 

 present experience goes, the production of 

 xanthic flowers is likely to be extremely 

 difficult and slow, and by no means so easily 

 accomplished as the making of purple- 

 coloured forms. The crossing of a heavily 

 purple-spotted crispum with Pescatorei 

 generally yields a richly-coloured armain- 

 villierense, or ardentissimum as it is often 

 called, but the mating of a yellow-spotted 

 crispum with a pure white Pescatorei produces 



