January 23, 1860. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
63 
Odontoglossum Eossi majus. 
Where choice flowers are in demand throughout the winter 
months, and those of Orchids are appreciated, large quantities of 
this useful Orchid should be grown. It is particularly cheap, and 
■a good number of pans with from six to eight strong flowering 
pseudo-bulbs can be made up for a very small outlay. It is ques¬ 
tionable if any Orchid yields a better return in flowers for the cost 
and attention than this. It grows with us like a weed in 5-inch 
pans that are about 2 inches deep. One good crock is placed at 
the base, a few smaller ones over it, and the plants are potted in 
a compost of peat fiore, small pieces of charcoal, with a little moss 
on the surface after the plants commence to grow. We elevate 
them little above the rim of the pan ; they are gradually sloped 
from the centre towards the rim, and the base of the outer pseudo¬ 
bulbs is level with this. 
We purchase early in the year as soon as we know of a consign¬ 
ment that has arrived in good condition, which is nearly always 
the case. If we buy large pieces, which we seldom do now, they 
are broken up. It is a mistake to place them on the surface in the 
often crowded condition in which the pseudo-bulbs are when they 
arrive. With us these pieces have never done so well as those that 
are broken up. After the plants arrive our first work is to pull 
them to pieces, remove all dead and decaying matter from 
amongst them, wash them thoroughly in tepid water, and then 
■spread them out on a board for a week or ten days, sometimes 
longer, even until they display signs of moving. During the 
interval between arrival and placing them in pans they are occa¬ 
sionally dewed over with the syringe, in fact whenever the board 
becomes dry. There is no better place than a vinery just started 
for them. After they are placed in pans they are suspended about 
15 inches from the glass in the Odontoglossum hou.se, or any other 
structure where the temperature and atmosphere are similar. They 
are only lightly dewed with the syringe until active growth and 
root activity has commenced. The chief object at first is not to 
overwater them. Strong flowering bulbs are then made the first 
season. We give less water to this Orchid during the winter than 
to other Odontoglossums. On the other hand, the material about 
the roots is never allowed to become really dry. We were led to 
this practice some years ago through the first imported plants we 
potted. They grew away as freely and made as fine pseudo¬ 
bulbs the first season as well established plants. The drying they 
bad undergone in transit had done them no harm. We have kept 
them drier during the resting period than most people do, and the 
results have been highly satisfactory. The puny growth and 
sickly condition in which this plant is often seen we believe to be 
mainly due to their having too much water during the winter.— 
■Orchid Grower. 
A Novel Dendrobihm. 
The first meeting of the Eoyal Horticultural Society’s Orchid 
Committee for 1890, which took place on Januaiy 14th in the Drill 
FIG. 9.—DENDROBIU-U NOBILE BURFORD VAR. 
Hall at Westminster, was an exceedingly inteiesting one, and 
augured well for the coming season. Several beautiful novelties 
were exhibited, and prominent amongst these were the hybrid 
Dendrobiums from the Society’s President, Sir Trevor Lawrence. 
These have already been described, and we may have occasion to 
refer to them again, but there is one which calls for special notice 
now. This was exhibited and certificated under the cumbrous 
title of Dendrobium nobile Burford variety, for which something 
much more concise and elegant might have been readily sub¬ 
stituted. This is a particularly interesting Orchid for several 
reasons, but that which will chiefly concern cultivators is that it is 
decidedly attractive, and while regarded as a curiosity it will, if its 
FIG. 10. —DENDROBIUM NOBILE COOICSONIANUM. 
characters remain constant, become a favourite addition to the 
varieties of the most useful Dendrobium grown. 
The lip, petals, and dorsal sepal are similar to those of any other 
good variety of D. nobile, but in the two lower sepals we find a 
peculiar character, the rich crimson colouring of the lip seems to- 
have been extended to their lower halves in broad bold bars._ A 
peculiar appearance is thus imparted to the flower, of which an idea 
can be formed from the representation of a flower in fig. 9. It 
will be seen at once that it has some resemblance to the now well 
known “ three-lipped ” D. no’oile Cooksonianum, but in that the 
deep colouring is confined to the lip and the petals, these three 
organs thus assuming a very similar character. This peculiarity can 
be°more readily understood than the transference of colour to the 
sepals without affecting the petals, but the occurrence of this 
variety has given rise to the impression that it is possible to obtain 
one with the lip colouring in all the sepals and petals, and we 
should at once have a regularity that would be approaching^ the 
florists’ ideal. Whether such a form would be an acquisition 
from an orcbidist’s point of view is doubtful. Except as a curiosity 
I do not think it would. It appears to me that one of the great 
charms of Orchid flowers is in the absence of rigid formality and 
exact symmetry. 
That D. nobile Cooksonianum and the Burford variety under 
consideration are good there can be no question—indeed, a plant of 
the former shown at the same meeting awakened general admira¬ 
tion, and though I have seen that variety many times I have never 
been so impressed with its distinctive beauty. The illustration 
here (fig. 10) reproduced, for comparison with the Burford variety, 
was prepared some time ago from a good flower, and in describing 
it I stated an opinion to which I still adhere—that haying been 
named Cooksonianum in error it should have received its proper 
designation, Heathfieldianum. However, the substituted title has 
been so generally recognised ■ tlrat it would be difficult now, and 
perhaps inexpedient, to attempt to supersede it. ^ 
The whole subject of transferring the lip colour into the other 
divisions of tte flower, which also occasionally assume the lip form, 
has been discussed scientifically by the late Professor Eeichenbach 
as Trilabellia, particularly in the paper he contributed to the 
Orchid Conference in 1885. In that he referred to instances 
occuring in Oncidium Papilio, Lailia elegans, Oncidium praitextum 
Leeanum, and Phalscnopsis Stuartiana Lendyana, but some of 
these were much more marked than in the Dendrobiums, the lips 
being reproduced in triplicate exact in form and colour. Some 
such examples I have seen, but they always seem more like 
monstrosities, and certainly do not possess the beauty of D. Cook¬ 
sonianum. There is one other Dendrobium nobile vaiiety, named 
Tollianum, which has the colouring in the petals, but more con¬ 
fined to the margins, the lips are turned the reverse way (upwards) 
from their normal position, at least this was the case with a plant 
