October 4, 1883 ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
309 
becomes more and more insecure as a guide, and a thorough knowledge 
of the minute structure and life-history of each organism becomes indis¬ 
pensable to anything like a correct determination of its taxonomic 
position. The marvellous theory of the true nature of Lichens would 
never have been ascertained by the ordinary methods of examination 
which were held to be sufficient by lichenologists. 
The final form of every natural classification—for I have no doubt 
that the general principles I have laid down are equally true in the field 
•of zoology—must be to approximate to the order of descent. For the 
theory of deseent became an irresistible induction as soon as the idea of 
a natural classification had been firmly grasped. 
In regard to flowering plants we owe, as I have said, the first step in 
natural classification to our own great naturalist, John Ray, who 
•divided them into Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons. The celebrated 
■classification of Linnams was avowedly purely artificial. It was a 
temporary expedient, the provisional character of which no one realised 
more thoroughly than himself. He, in fact, himself gave us one of the 
earliest outlines of a truly natural system. Such a system is based on 
.-affinity, and we know of no other explanation of affinity than that 
■which is implied in the word—namely, common parentage. No one 
■finds any difficulty in admitting that, where a number of individual 
organisms closely resemble one another, they must have been derived 
from the same stock. I allow that, in cases where external form is 
■widely different, the conclusion to one who is not a naturalist is by no 
means so obvious. But in such cases it rests on the profound and con- 
•stant resemblance of internal points of structure. Anyone who studies 
the matter with a perfectly open mind finds it impossible to draw a line. 
If genetic relationship or heredity is admitted to be the explanation 
of affinity in the most obvious case, the stages are imperceptible by 
which the same conclusion is seen to be inevitable when the evidence is 
tairly examined, even in cases where at the first glance it seems least 
likely. 
(To be continued.! 
ONCIDIUM ORNITHORHYNCHUM. 
The above is a most useful species, blooming at a season when 
Orchid flowers are scarce. It is remarkably well grown by Mr. 
T. A. Glover, gardener to E. Ellis, Esq., Manor House, Wallington. 
One plant I noticed suspended in the conservatory, where it has 
been for several weeks, was in a 5-inch pot, cari’ying fifteen graceful 
•drooping spikes, with a total of 650 beautifully scented and delicate 
rose-coloured flowers. It is grown in the Cattleya house near the 
•glass. The pretty little 0. cheirophorum under the same treat¬ 
ment is at the present time well furnished with branching spikes, 
and there will soon be a display of 0. varicosum and O. Rogersi to 
succeed the 0. tigrinum, 0. cucullatum, which are now in flower. 
Saccoiabium guttatum is here represented by a good form bearing 
•a spike 18 inches long, densely clothed with white and purple 
blooms. Cattleya velutina and various Cypripediums are also 
flowering well. 
Mr. Glover has succeeded in establishing a fine piece of the new 
Coclogyne Sanderiana, the fresh growths being nearly equal to the 
Imported ones. It is grown on a shelf in a warm and moist house 
where Phalacnopsis used to do so well, in company with some fine 
dalanthes.—G. W. C. 
ONCIDIUM JONE8IANUM. 
Wiiat a very free-flowering Orchid this is! We have several 
■plants now flowering beautifully, and they are most valuable for 
cutting from, as the spikes have a very elegant appearance. It 
succeeds in the Cattleya house in a basket with crocks, no peat or 
sphagnum being necessary. It needs a plentiful supply of water. 
The foliage is also very distinct from other Oncidiums.—A. Y. 
COMPARETTIAS. 
There are now numbers of beautiful winter-flowering Orchids 
in cultivation, and with a moderately extensive collection little 
difficulty is experienced in maintaining a bright and satisfactory 
display in the structures devoted to such plants. The small genus 
now under notice is well known to many Orchid growers ; and 
ihough the few species it includes are not entitled to rank among 
■fehe most showy of their order, they possess several recommenda¬ 
tions. The racemes are elegant, generally drooping, and bearing 
small but brightly coloured flowers that are produced in the latter 
months of the year, or from January to March. The plants are 
all epiphytal in habit, succeeding well on small blocks of wood 
suspended from the roof of a moderately warm house, but not 
where they are too fully exposed to the sun. In other respects the 
treatment they require is similar to that of most tropical epiphytal 
Orchids. 
Comparettia falcata, the species represented in fig. 34, is one of 
the best known, and is seen in most metropolitan nurseries and in 
the chief collections of Orchids in the country. It produces a 
rather loose raceme of deep rose or crimson-coloured flowers from 
the base of the pseudo-bulbs, the scape usually being much longer 
than is shown in the cut, the flowers being borne near the ex¬ 
tremity^ The labellum is the chief distinctive feature of the 
flower, it being strangely restricted in the middle. C. rosea is 
another pretty species with with shorter and more compact racemes 
than that mentioned above, but it is much more rarely seen. 
C. coccinea, which has pale scarlet tinted flowers, is very attractive 
and free in flowering, particularly handsome specimens being 
occasionally met with.—R. L. 
HILTONIA CUNEATA. 
The Miltonias constitute a genus of handsome Orchids. The 
name was given in honour of Earl Fitzwilliam, who was an ardent 
admirer of plants of this nature. They are mostly natives of Brazil, 
and consequently require a warm stove temperature, especially 
during the season of growth. If given heat and a moist atmosphere 
few Orchids grow more freely or flower more profusely, and their 
richly coloured flowers are admirable for cutting and the furnishing 
of vases, &c. The plants will grow either in baskets or in pots ; 
if in the latter it is necessary that they be potted very high—that 
is, the pots should be nearly filled with crocks ; and the material, 
very fibrous peat, sphagnum, and charcoal, should be made to form 
a cone above the rim of the pot. The creeping stems from which 
the pseudo-bulbs grow should be pegged to the surface of the com¬ 
post with small hooked pegs, and with good cultivation the plants 
will increase in size lapidly. If grown in baskets the plants re- 
