176 
THK ORCHID WORLD. 
[May, 1913. 
Distribution of Colour. — At the 
Orchid Conference of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, held November, 191 2, and of which 
a full report occurs m the March issue of the 
Society's Journal, Professor Bateson called 
attention to the curious problem presented by 
the distribution of colours in the varieties of 
Odontoglossums. Inasmuch as the brown 
colours are evidently due to the combination 
of a purple sap colour with a yellow 
(presumably due chiefly if not exclusively to 
presence of yellow plastids), it is a paradox 
that brown spots may occur on a white 
ground. We should expect either that all 
spots on a white ground would be purple, or 
that if the spots were brown there would be 
yellow spots or yellow edges associated with 
them. In certain forms yellow spots do occur 
on a white ground, without any admixture of 
purple or brown. This, however, is natural 
enough. But since brown spots on a white 
ground may occur without any separate yellow 
marks, the fact must be taken to mean that 
the distribution of the purple and of the 
yellow m such cases coincides, with the result 
that the spots are brown though the ground is 
white. Since, however, the factors responsible 
for the purple and for the yellow respectively 
must surely be genetically independent, this 
coincidence is remarkable. There are often, 
of course, purple spots in addition to brown 
ones, but no separate yellow spots, or even 
yellow edges, to the brown spots in these 
cases. 
U % 
Colour of Flowers. — Some twenty-five 
years ago Mr. Smee experimented with 
flowers and plants in a weak solution of 
silicate of soda, and he noticed that these 
were affected by the solution according to 
their colour. The following facts were com- 
municated by him to the Scientific Committee 
of the Royal Horticultural Society. The 
colours disappear m the following order : — 
Blue, lilac, red, and brown, whilst yellow was 
the most persistent. Greens behaved accord- 
ing as blue or yellow predominated in its 
composition. The question occurred whether 
the white varieties of flowers are not formed 
among plants in a similar order. In the poor 
varieties of Vanda coerulea, the petals are 
almost white with very pale blue veming. In 
Cattleya the colour of the petals and lip dis- 
appear, leaving the yellow throat and the pale 
pink tint, which so often spoils a white 
Cattleya from a florist's point of view, as the 
remains of the red tint in the mauve colour. 
Therefore, as yellow is so persistent, we 
cannot expect a white variety to appear 
amongst Cattleya citrina. The white Odonto- 
glossum crispum is due to the disappearance 
of the brown blotches, leaving only the yellow 
markings on the column ; and in the case of 
the yellow triumphans, which is a poor form 
of the ordinary type, the brown blotches 
are either absent or are in process of 
disappearance. 
IS 1^ 1^ 
Orchid Sale. — A total sum of over £1,200 
was realised by Messrs. Protheroe and Morris, 
Cheapside, by a sale by auction of 165 
duplicate Orchids from the Shrubbery collec- 
tion, the property of Mr. F. Menteith Ogilvie. 
The following figures are of interest: — 
Odontoglossum crispum xanthotes Charles- 
worthii, five bulbs, 21 gns. ; O.c. xanthotes 
White Lady, four bulbs, 1 1 gns. ; O.c. 
.xanthotes Snow Queen, seven bulbs, 16 gns. ; 
O.c. Queen Empress, five bulbs, 30 gns. ; O.c. 
Magnum Bonum, four bulbs and a new 
growth, 38 gns. ; O.c. hololeucum, five bulbs, 
13 gns.; O.c. virginale Aladonna, three bulbs 
and a new growth, 13 gns. ; O.c. G. F. Moore, 
four bulbs and a new growth, 8i gns. ; 
Cattleya gigas Mrs. E. Ashworth, four bulbs, 
all leaved, 1 3 gns. ; C. Trianae The Premier, 
four bulbs, all leaved, 36 gns. ; C.T. Grand 
Monarch, six bulbs, all leaved, two of which 
are leads, 100 gns. ; C.T. ATooreana, four 
bulbs, all leaved, 30 gns. ; Loelio-Cattleya 
Golden Glory, five bulbs, two leads, 26 gns. ; 
Brasso-Cattleya Cliftonii magnifica, five bulbs, 
in flower, 210 gns. ; Miltonia vexillaria G. D. 
Owen, five bulbs, two new growths, 120 gns. ; 
M.v. chelseaensis, fourteen bulbs, four strong 
leads, 23 gns. ; Cypripedium Elatior 
Shrubbery variety, one strong growth and 
young break, 1 5 gns. ; Odontoglossum 
Ossulstonii Shrubbery variety, four bulbs, 
two of which are leads, and a flower spike, 
