266 
THE ORCHID WORLD. 
than a year is apparently required. In 
February, 1909, Mr. F. C. Puddle, of 
Scampston Hall Gardens, Rillington, York, 
fertilised Coelogyne cristata Lemoniana with 
the pollen of Coelogyne flaccida, and the 
seed-pod has taken two years and five months 
to ripen. This length of time seems to be a 
record, but as only a few Coelogyne crosses 
have been made, it is impossible to ascertain 
the usual period required for this genus. The 
seed was in fertile condition, and when sown 
by Mr. Puddle it quickly germinated, the 
first little green leaves making their appear- 
ance in three weeks, an exceedingly quick 
result, and a great contrast to the length of 
time required for the formation of the 
seed pod. 
S.^ SJE 
Cattleya Warscewiczii Frau Melanie 
Beyrodt. — This rare variety of a plant 
better known in gardens as Cattleya gigas is 
of great beauty. Some specimen flowers, 
which amply show the result of good culture, 
have been sent by Mr. E. Hill, of Lynford 
Hall Gardens, Mundford, Norfolk. They 
measure more than seven inches across the 
petals, and the lip is proportionally large. 
The sepals and petals are pure-white with the 
exception of a minute spot of purple on the 
extreme tip of the petal. There is always a 
tendency for extra colour to be produced on 
the tips of the petals, frequent examples 
having been seen in Cattleya Mendelii and 
Cattleya Trianas, a well-known form of the 
latter being C. Trianas Backhouseana. This 
minute spot of purple is, therefore, all that is 
left in the portion of the petal where the total 
elimination of the colour may be the most 
difficult. The lip has the normal purple- 
coloured front lobe, but the upper part and 
inside of the throat are pure-white ; the con- 
spicuous yellow discs have also lost much of 
their colour. A First-class Certificate was 
awarded to the plant when exhibited at the 
Royal Horticultural Society by Herr Otto 
Beyrodt, of Marienfelde, Berlin, on July 1 2th, 
1904. This fine variety will make some inter- 
esting hybrids, and the fe\v that have already 
flowered prove that we may obtain many 
white-petalled varieties. The future will 
probably give us Cattleya Hardyana with 
white sepals and petals, and similar forms of 
Cattleya amabilis. 
Si a 
L/elio-Cattleya Rubens var. Lady 
Moore.— A flower of this hybrid, which is 
undoubtedly the finest Variety, has been sent 
by Mr. F. W. Thurgood, Orchid grower to 
H. T. Pitt, Esq., Rosslyn, Stamford Hill, N. 
Although the excellent shape and colour of 
the flower suggest that the hybrid has been 
produced from selected parents, it does not 
follow that all the seedlings from this pod of 
seed will be equal to it, the general experi- 
ence being that only a few are of a superior 
nature, the larger number reverting, in form 
and colour, to the normal condition of the 
parental species. Laelio-Cattleya Rubens is 
the result of crossing Laelia prasstans with 
Cattleya Hardyana (aurea x gigas), and may 
be described as having much of the form of 
Laelia prasstans in the sepals and petals with a 
greatly improved Hp ; in fact, the lip seems 
almost too large for the flower. This large 
labellum is the finest part of the flower, being 
of a rich crimson-purple with a deeply-frilled 
and undulated margin. The golden-yellow 
of the Cattleya aurea is hidden by the heavy 
purple pigment of the other parents^ the only 
visible sign of this species being in the gold 
veining in the throat and the increased 
crimson in the margin of the lip. In almost 
every variety of Laslia pumila and Laelia 
praestans a small portion in the centre of the 
margin of the lip is without the intense colour 
of the surrounding area. One might suppose 
this to be due to lack of sufficient pigment, 
but in Laelio-Cattleya Rubens even the purple 
in the lip of Cattleya gigas and the crimson- 
purple in that of Cattleya aurea have failed to 
entirely cover this spot with any deeper shade 
of colour than that possessed by the Laelia 
praestans. The inference is that in these two 
Laelia species conditions exist which prevent 
the colour from occupying this particular 
place, and that these are strong enough to 
influence the specific characters of such highly 
coloured species as Cattleya gigas and 
Cattleya aurea. 
