July, 1912.] 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



Digbyano-Mossiae with C. Mossiee. The 

 additional influence of the Cattleya species 

 has greatly broadened the petals, and given 

 extra colour to the flower. Exhibited by 

 Messrs. Armstrong and Brown at the recent 

 International Show. 



u m ^ 



OnONTIODA ROLFEI. — This new primary 

 hybrid between C. vulcanica and O. Hunne- 

 wellianum has been raised in the Chessington 

 collection by Mr. J. M. Black. The dark rose 

 colour of the Cochlioda parent is almost 

 hidden by solid brown blotches on the sepals 

 and petals. The reflexed labellum is very 

 broad shouldered, constricted in the middle, 

 and of a light rose colour with a few brown 

 markings. Crest and column almost white. 



DENDROBIUM SUPERBIENS. 



THE following interesting letter has 

 been received from Mr. W. Micholitz 

 while Orchid collecting for Messrs. 

 Sander and Sons m the Torres Strait Islands. 



" I arrived at Thursday Island with a good 

 number of Dendrobium superbiens, mostly 

 fine plants. I have also some D. bigibbum 

 and D. Johannis ; the latter seems to be a 

 most floriferous thins: and well worth culti- 

 vation. There are very few plants of 

 D. superbiens found on the other islands, and 

 the plants have become far too expensive, 

 because boat, men, and their feeding cost 

 so much that the few plants one finds would 

 cost far more than their value. Besides, with 

 half a gale blowing, and a great deal of rain, 

 it is very disagreeable, and one cannot anchor 

 near the small islands. I have labelled the 

 plant of D. Goldei which I have found. 



" D. superbiens seeds very seldom. I have 

 not seen more than half-a-dozen seed pods, 

 but, curiously enough, nature has given them 

 another means to propagate. One very 

 rarely finds a plant which does not have a 

 number of adventitious bulbs on the top of 

 the regular bulbs, which frequently in their 

 turn again produce adventitious bulbs, so that 

 one sometimes finds them three and four 



growths long. The result is that one 

 generally iinds, especially among rocks, a 

 whole nest of the plants. 



" D. bigibbum also does not fertilise freely, 

 though far more so than superbiens, but here 

 also we have the tendency to produce adven- 

 titious bulbs, though much less than in D. 

 superbiens. We observe the same thing in 

 the Burmese D. Brymerianum which seeds 

 very, very rarely, but freely produces adven- 

 titious bulbs. 



" I am sorry I have not got more, but all the 

 collecting had to be done by my own men. 

 Only Badu, in Mulgrave, and Molu, in Banks 

 are inhabited, the other islands are mostly 

 without water. 



" D. superbiens is very scarce indeed. Some 

 time ago a party were here who took a lot 

 of Orchids, but they were all D. bigibbum. 

 There are no natives living on the islands, 

 and the few Malays and other coloured 

 people on Thursday Island earn money far 

 more easily than by hunting for Orchids, 

 to do which a good size boat is required ; 

 this they do not generally possess. 



" I visited these islands, and they did not 

 produce more than 50 or 60 plants. The 

 plant grows mostl}- on rocks in the jungle, 

 and also on trees. It is an awful job to 

 collect it, the jungle is so dense and full of 

 creepers ; these, in addition to the rock- 

 covered ground, make it toilsome and weary 

 work. 



" I have found a few D. Goldei among the 

 D. superbiens. D. bigibbum is plentiful, a 

 fine type, and plants very large. It is a 

 lovely thing. 



" Here, it is no picnic ; the south-east wind 

 is howling through the rigging, the dinghy 

 in which one lands is a mere nut-shell, and 

 at ebb tide one has a quarter of a mile or 

 more of coral reef to wade and clamber over. 

 The beach is mostly strewn with rocks and 

 huge boulders. But worst of all is the 

 continual tossing and rolling of the craft 

 when at anchor. 



" D. superbiens occurs more or less on most 

 of the islands, also on the mainland, but to 

 every 500 D. bigibbum one finds only two 

 or three plants of D. superbiens." 



