15° 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



Odontoglossum Uro-Skinneri. But suppose 

 someone uninitiated in Orchidology were to 

 search in a botanical library for Odonto- 

 glossum crispum Pittianum, he might reason- 

 ably conclude that this is a different species 

 to Odontoglossum crispum, and, although the 

 latter species might easily be referred to, 

 there is little chance of him finding the former 

 name, the reason being that crispum 

 Pittianum is not a distinct species from, but 

 only a variety of, crispum. By naming 

 varieties of species in the vulgar tongue 

 confusion will be reduced to a minimum, and 

 in many cases entirely eliminated. Correct 

 examples : Odontoglossum crispum Mrs. 

 F. Peeters and O. c. The Kaiser. 



Article III. — "When the names of varieties 

 expressed in the vulgar tongue are trans- 

 ferred to other languages they must not be 

 translated, but must be preserved in the 

 language in which they were originally 

 published." 



For example : Odontoglossum crispum 

 Roi d'Angleterre must not be translated to 

 O. c. King of England. 



Article IV. — "The names of varieties 

 should be expressed as far as possible in a 

 single word ; and the employment of not 

 more than three words is permitted as a 

 maximum. The same rule applies to the 

 specific names of hybrids." 



Article V. — "The publication of a de- 

 scription of a variety in a dated horticultural 

 catalogue is valid, but the mention of a 

 variety without description in a. catalogue, or 

 in the report of an exhibition, is not valid 

 publication, even if a figure is given. It is 

 desirable that descriptions of new varieties 

 published in horticultural catalogues, should 

 also be published in periodical horticultural 

 papers." 



The catalogue must be dated, otherwise it 

 is impossible when the same hybrid is 

 described under different names in two 

 catalogues to determine which is the earliest 

 publication. It should also be noted that 

 valid publication dates from the date when 

 the catalogue was published, and not from the 

 date when the description was written. 



Article VI. — " In order to be valid, the 



description of a new variety, or of a new 

 hybrid, must be drawn up either in English, 

 German, French, Italian, or Latin." 



Article VII. — " Hybrids between species of 

 the same genus, or presumably such, are 

 designated by a name and a formula. The 

 name is distinguished from the names of 

 siaecies by the sign x placed before the 

 generic name. The formula, placed between 

 brackets, consists of the specific names of 

 the two parents, connected by the sign x , 

 the name of the seed-bearing parent being 

 placed first. The seed-bearing parent should 

 be indicated by the sign ?." 



This article needs very careful consider- 

 ation, for not only is it the most essential part 

 of the whole scheme, but it is one which 

 specially concerns horticulturists. 



Hybrids between species of the same genus 

 must be distinguished from the names of 

 species by the sign x placed before the 

 generic name. For example : x Cattleya Iris, 

 not Cattleya x Iris. The names of the 

 parents are placed in brackets, but as the 

 seed-bearing parent must be placed first, we 

 fail to see the necessity of additionally 

 distinguishing it by the sign ?. Example: 



x Cattleya Iris (C. aurea ? x C. bicolor). 



But let us follow more closely the work of 

 the hybridist, and see how this Article is 

 workable with recent events. Cattleya Iris 

 has been crossed with Cattleya aurea, the 

 resulting hybrid being known as Cattleya 

 Venus. The correct method of nomenclature 

 would appear to be x Cattleya Venus ( x 

 C. Iris x C. aurea). This is reasonably clear, 

 but suppose the second parent happened to 

 be a hybrid instead of a species, are we, 

 therefore, to write — x Cattleya Rhoda 

 ( X C. Iris x x C. Hardyana) ; or is the 

 parentage to be expressed in full — 



X Cattleya Rhoda [ x C. Iris (C. aurea 



X C. bicolor) x x C. Hardyana (C. gigas 



X C. aurea)]. 



Article VIII. — "The specific name of a 

 hybrid may be expressed in Latin or in any 

 language that is written in Roman characters." 

 Examples : Cattleya Mrs Pitt (Harrisoniana 



x aurea) and Cattleya Pittiae (Harrisoniana 



x Schilleriana) are both correct. 



