442 JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTTCTTLTURAL SOCIETY. 



ocanthochilon with D. ruhens, whilst from D. Wiganiae crossed with 

 D. Wiganiae xanthochilon a number of the seedhngs raised had either 

 white or cream-white sepals and petals. 



, Vendrobium Findleyanum crossed with Dendrobium Wiganiae pro- 

 duced the same results, except that in the white varieties there was a 

 faint trace of colour on the tips of the sepals and petals. 



Cattle y a Dowiana aurea crossed with G. Trianae albens produced 

 C. X * Maggie Eaphael,' with whitish sepals and petals, in very large 

 proportions. 



I believe that all white Orchids in nature are produced from colour, 

 their scarcity being due to the rare chance of nature selecting and 

 blending the colours so as to produce white. 



So soon as one attempts to obtain white seedlings from white 

 parents there is considerable disappointment. Whites mated together 

 will sometimes produce white, but coloured flowers have frequently 

 resulted. 



The following parents have flowered white year after year and 

 have (without exception) produced v/hite progeny: — 



Dendrobium nobile virginale fertilized with its own pollen. 



Cattleya labiata alba crossed with another G. labiata alba. 



G. Mossiae Wageneri fertilized with its own pollen. 



G. Mossiae Wageneri crossed with another G. Mossiae Wageneri. 



Laelia praestans piunila alba fertilized with its own pollen. 



G. intermedia alba crossed into G. Mossiae Wageneri. 



I have never had white and coloured flowers from the same crossing 

 of whites. The results have always been all white or all coloured. 



The following produced flushed flowers without exception : — 



Dendrobium Wiganianum album crossed with D. nobile virginale. 



Gattleya labiata Amesiayia crossed with G. labiata ' R. I. Measures.' 



G. Schroederae alba crossed with G. Mossiae Wageneri. 



G. Gaskelliana alba crossed with G. Harrisoniana alba. 



G. Gaskelliana alba crossed with G. Mendelii alba. 



All these crosses were made in the hope of obtaining white flowers. 



In the light of after experiences, however, the explanation for the 

 disappointment appeared. 



Although the Gattleya Harrisoiiiana, the Gattleya Mendelii, and 

 the G. Schroderae were, so far as the eye was concerned, the trne 

 albinos of their class at the time they were used as parents, upon 

 flowering them, later, all of them were seen to have a slight flush 

 O'f colour, that is to say, they were not fixed whites, and had reverted 

 towards their type. The D. Wiga^iianum was not a true albino in 

 that although it received an A.M. as D. Wiganianum album, it had 

 tv/o faint lines of colour in the throat, and both the Gattleya labiata 

 Amesiana and the Ga.ttleya lahiaia ' E. I. Measures ' had coloured 

 lips. 



As an instance that it is possible for a plant to flower white one 

 year and coloured another, and to exonerate myself for allowing these 

 failures to be recorded as failures to obtain white from wliite, T call 



