8o 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



— how if the least particle of the dominant 

 rose or purple pigment is present in either 

 parent the progeny will revert to type, and I 

 would derive a lesson from this well ascer- 

 tained fact as a guidance in our present 

 endeavour. Just as we rightly regard the 

 pure white and yellow flower as an albmo, 

 so we must regard the pure yellow flower as 

 an albino, and I shall henceforth call it a 

 yellow-albino. I would also suggest to those 

 whose duty it is to look after the nomencla- 

 ture of Orchids, tliat they insist on the words 

 alba and album being given to those varieties 

 only that are without question white or white 

 and yellow m all segments and not to varieties 

 that have purple hps, for these latter have no 

 claim to be so named. The careless use of 

 the word alba is misleading and mischievous, 

 but we shall all continue to sin m this respect 

 until a strict rule is passed and enforced. I 

 would also make the same distinction 

 between the yellow-albino and the yellow 

 Cattleya or Laelio-Cattleya having a coloured 

 lip. Now to produce this yellow-albino by 

 hybridisation, my theory is that we must 

 exercise the same care and discretion in 

 selecting parents as for an albino, our only 

 concern being that there are very few yellow- 

 albino species in either the Cattleya or Laelia 

 genus to select from, and these few are sadly 

 weinting m shape or other qualities that we 

 recognise as constituting the perfect Cattleya 

 bloom. Let us first examine our material 

 and then think out a modus operandi. 



There is no dearth among Cattleyas of 

 species containing some yellow on other parts 

 of the perianth besides the labellum, but as 

 these usually contain a mingling of rose as 

 well, besides purple on the labellum, they will 

 be useless for producing a pure yellow-albino 

 breed of hybrids. I shall discuss these 

 various species in a future article, and shall 

 no doubt find some of them useful for the 

 production of the Cattleya with yellow sepals 

 and petals and coloured lip, but which frankly 

 has no pretensions to being a yellow-albino. 



In the Cattleya genus there is only one 

 Cattleya that I would venture to call a pure 

 yellow-albino, and that is Cattleya citrina. 

 This is no sport from a coloured form, but is 



typically and fixedly pure. Cattleya citrina 

 has been sadly neglected by the hybridist, 

 but it IS by no means negligible. It is a very 

 pretty object in itself, dainty and sweet- 

 scented, but its topsy-turvy way of growing 

 and flowering, and the great dissimilarity 

 between it and the other members of the 

 genus, have no doubt led to its being left out 

 of the hybridist's reckoning. We can only 

 guess at its potentialities, as with the excep- 

 tion of Brasso-Cattleya H. G. Alexander (C. 

 citrina x iirassavola Digbyana) the few 

 occasions on which it has been used in 

 hybridisation it has been misused. B.-C. 

 H. G. Alexander was sufficiently meritorious 

 to receive an A.M. from the committee of 

 the R.H.S., when exhibited on March 5th, 

 I go/, and the Orchid Review described it as 

 follows : " The plant bears erect, somewhat 

 compressed pseudobulbs and dark green 

 fleshy leaves, and is thus like the Brassavola 

 in habit ; but the flower is more like the 

 Cattleya parent, being somewhat pendulous 

 and on a rather long pedicel, while the seg- 

 ments are somewhat connivent, fleshy and 

 light yellow in colour. The lip is entire, but 

 somewhat frmgeci at the margin, and primrose 

 yellow in front, passing into greenish towards 

 the base. It is a very distinct and remarkable 

 hybrid, and Mr. Alexander must be congratu- 

 lated on his success in uniting two such diverse 

 species." This was thus an entirely satis- 

 factory hybrid, and had succeeded in shaking 

 off the C. citrina's habit of growing and 

 flowering head downwards. 



B. Digbyana is not by any means an albino, 

 being invariably suffused with rose, notably 

 on the exterior surface of tlie sepals, and the 

 ensemble is usually a dull, greenish-white, 

 which generally succeeds in quenching in 

 its hybrids any brilliance there may be in any 

 variety of Cattleya that it is mated with. It 

 would seem then all the more wondeiful that 

 the yellow of the C. citrina should escape 

 complete annihilation when blended with this 

 plant. One of the cleanest yellows among 

 Laslia cinnabanna hybrids is Brasso-Lslia 

 Mrs. M. Gratrix (B. Digbyana x L. cinna- 

 barina), and I am giving these two illustra- 

 tions to show that a white and yellow in 



