.Plate 45. 



ODONTOGLOSSUM ANDERSONIANUM. 



In the whole range of the singular and beautiful family of Orchids, there is not one 

 group that gives us so great a variety as the Odontoglossums, a fact to which our pages, both 

 in our former and present series, bear witness, and which is still further illustrated by the 

 magnificent monograph of Mr. Bateman. 



The following, from the pen of our greatest living Orchidologist, Professor Heichen- 

 bach fils, will be the best description we can give. " When I originally described this doubt- 

 ful plant, most probably a hybrid between 0. crisp um and praestans, or gloriosum, I had but 

 a couple of flowers at hand ; at a later period, J. Day, Esq., sent me a parcel of the same 

 thing, but with much less richness of colouring. Now, in 1872, comes the glory of the plant. 

 Messrs. Veitch having imported masses of the Grrenadan Odontoglossa and Masdevallias, 

 Samuel Mendel, Esq., of Manchester, got a lot of these. One of these Odontoglots has just 

 flowered, and Messrs. Veitch obtained a flower which had to travel from Chelsea once more 

 to Hamburgh. Our French friends would call it Jtors de ligne. The day of its flowering 

 must become a red letter day in the Mendelean calendar. This grand flower is of the Alex- 

 andra shape, yet the sepals and petals are a little narrower; it is creamy white (not milk 

 white), the inferior halves of the sepals and petals are adorned internally with reddish brown 

 dots and streaks, and some such blotches are to be found on the disk of the anterior lip, 

 whose superior part is yellowish. I feel very much pleasure in finding that Harry Veitch, Esq. 

 immediately had the idea of its being a cross between 0. Alexandra and 0. gloriosum. Messrs. 

 Veitch knew that they had such a wonder, since they possessed a beautiful dried inflorescence 

 of the plant, now a magnum decus of my herbarium." 



We are indebted to Messrs. Veitch for the opportunity of figuring this very fine Orchid. 



Plate 46. 



HIBISCUS (uosa sinensis) — A LB O - V A R IEG ATUS. 



We have already figured (plate 36) in our present volume, a fine semi-double variety of 

 Hibiscus, which has been distributed by Mr. W. Bull, of Chelsea, and we add another, very 

 different in character, but at the same time both curious and beautiful. 



Hibiscus-albo variegatus, is a free-growing and elegantly marked stove plant, obtained 

 from the Pacific Islands, of a closely branched habit, with pale green stems and with ovate 

 slightly serrated leaves, which are finely mottled and variegated with greyish green and 

 white, breaking out irregularly in a manner similar to the markings of Hibiscus Cooperii, to 

 which it would form a companion plant, having the variegation white instead of pink ; it 

 should be grown in full light, near the glass, to bring out its proper colouring. 



Such is Mr. Bull's description of the plant ; the flower it will be seen is of an Indian red 

 colour, with a peculiarly long style, which adds to its striking appearance ; it is easily culti- 

 vated, and to those who desire to have free-flowering variegated shrubs in their stoves, it will 

 be a decided acquisition. 



