178 THE FLORIST AMD POMOLOGIST. 
flowering 0. grande, which is thus elevated into a distinct species, as 
O. Lawrenceanim. These and some other instances I could name, have a 
tendency to obscure botanical nomenclature ; and I would support the 
late Dr. Lindley and Mr. Bateman in strongly deprecating this Babel of 
confusion. I have flowered the common 0. grande when in vigour over and 
over again twice a-year, and so have I done with the so-called 0. Lawren- 
ceanum. Botanists are sometimes more to blame than the horticulturists 
for this state of matters, and when men of science will persevere in so 
doing, how are we to look for a remedy? To revert to 0. Insleayi and its 
variety Schliepeiianicm, we have to remark that there are now numerous 
plants in the country, and plenty to be bought at a cheap rate. As a cool- 
house plant it always engages attention, and when any one gets from ten 
to twelve flowers on the spike, its decorative importance will be suitably 
acknowledged. Its flowers are only about half the size of grande, but the 
colours are better contrasted and more vivid. 
0. radicitum is a decided acquisition. Although, as noted above, it is 
identical with 0 . luteo-purpureum, still that species was till lately unknown 
as a cultivated plant in this 
country. There is this pecu¬ 
liarity about the species, that 
it occurs in so many and such 
diverse varieties, that were 
we contented with such little 
distinctions as those of the 
so-called species above com¬ 
mented upon, we might have 
at least a dozen new names 
added to our Orchid vocabu¬ 
lary. It comes to be a ques¬ 
tion, then, with collectors, not 
so much Have you got radia- 
tum ? as What is your variety ? 
Some of them are very clear in 
the ground colour, and some 
are very indistinct; some pro¬ 
minently blotched and spotted 
with a clear shining choco¬ 
late, while others are of a dark 
murky brown. Good-grown 
plants produce panicles bear¬ 
ing from fifteen to twenty- 
four flowers. Coming from 
•Ecuador and those lofty 
ranges that stretch across Central America, it is -well suited for a cool 
climate, and it is of ready growth and free-blooming properties. . 
On the merits of 0. yrande and Pescatorei with its nearly allied species, 
Alexandra (Bluntii), I need not enlarge. They, beyond question, combine 
the gorgeous, the beautiful, the chaste, and the winning features of the 
highest rank of floral display, and any reasonable sum invested in either 
one or all of them, if the plants be well managed throughout, will be repaid 
with interest at the period of inflorescence. 
Meadow Bank. 
James Anderson. 
