THE ORCHID WORLD. 
235 
commences in spring. This method certainly 
has the advantage of giving more room dur- 
ing the winter time to the other occupants of 
the house. 
ISE ^ IS 
AN EARLYNOTEONACYPRIPEDIUM. 
In the year 1791 was pubhshed "The 
Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts, with 
Philosophical Notes." For our readers' 
benefit we give the author's views of the 
supposed resemblance of a Cypripedinm 
flower to a large spider, his philosophical 
note concerning it, and the part of the poem 
alluding to this quaint idea of |irotective 
mimicry. 
" Fair Cypripedia. The Cypripedium from 
South America is supposed to be of a larger 
size and brighter colours than that from 
North America. It has a large globular 
nectary about the size of a pigeon's egg of a 
fleshy colour, and an incision or depression 
on its ujiper part, much resembling the body 
of a large American spider ; this globular 
nectary is attached to divergent slender j>etals 
not unlike the legs of the same animal. This 
spider is called by Linneus Arenea avicularia, 
with a convex orbicular thorax, the centre 
transversely excavated ; he adds, that it 
catches small birds as well as insects, and has 
the venemous bite of a serpent. 
" The similitude of this flower to this great 
spider seems to be a vegetable contrivance to 
prevent the humming bird from plundering 
its honey. About Matlock in Derbyshire the 
fly Orchis is produced, the nectary of which 
so much resembles the small wall-bee, 
perhaps the apis ichncumonea, that it may be 
easily mistaken for it at a small distance. It 
is probable that by this means it may often 
escape being plundered. 
" Fair Cypripedia with successful s;u\\c 
Knits her smooth brow, extinguishes lier smile ; 
A spider's bloated paunch and joinled arms 
Hide her fine form, and make her blushinj^ 
charms ; 
In ambush fly the mimic warrior lies, 
And on r|uick wing' the panting plunderer flies." 
CULTURE RECORDS. 
C}'mbidium eburneum. — A large specimen 
plant of this beautiful species was exhibited 
at the Royal Horticultural Society, April 25th, 
igii, by Lieut.-Col. H. Powys Greenwood. 
It measured about three feet in diameter and 
carried more than forty flowers. The ex- 
hibitor, in whose collection the plant has been 
since i8go, .obtained it from Dr. F. W. 
Coates, of Salisbury, to whom it was presented 
by the fourth Earl of Radun. 
Odontoglossum Clytie. — This pretty hybrid 
between O. Edwardii and O. Pescatorei has 
recently produced a spike of seventy-two 
flowers in the collection of R. G. Thwaites, 
Esq., Streatham Hill. 
Odontoglossum hastilabium. — A very fine 
variety of this species was exhibited by 
Messrs. Charlesworth and Co., at the Temple 
.Show. It carried a branching spike of eighty- 
three large flowers, and received a Cultural 
Commendation. 
Oncidium Claesii. — A very remarkable plant 
with a long twining spike of sixty-nine 
flowers was exhibited by Sir Jeremiah 
Colman, Bart., at the Temple Show, igii, 
when it received an Award of Merit. The 
spike is said to have taken two years to 
develop. 
Odontoglossum Williamsianum. — This 
beautiful plant, supposed to be a natural 
hybrid between O. grande and O. Schlieperi- 
anum, but more probably a geographical form 
of O. grande, produced a spike of twenty 
flowers when in the collection of M. le Comte 
A. de Germiny, Gouville, France. 
Renanthera Lowii. — Baron von Hruby, of 
Peckau, Austria, flowered, in 1883, a large 
plant of this species which bore as many as 
twenty-two spikes of flowers. Mr. Bergman, 
of Ferrieres, also flowered in the same year a 
fine plant with eleven spikes, which averaged 
nine feet in length. 
Dendrobium Jamesianum. — Mr. Harry 
Dixon, .Spencer Park Nursery, Wandsworth 
Common, has recently flowered a plant of this 
species with twenty-one flowers on a single 
bulb. 
