Jan uary 5, 1942 
t 
Mr. C. H, Lurkester 
Las C<5neavas 
Cartage , Costa Rica 
Dear . r. Luntester: 
I found your package »hen 1 came into the Museum 
Yesterday, Cattleya irianaei var. alba ant not the 
Sobralia which I had expected. 
I ara afraid that the that the flowers got ioto too 
much cold along the way somewhere for they were pretty well 
browned up when th$y arrived. It is possible to tell enough 
about them to say that the form which you have must 
be an exceedingly f me one as to shape. -- I am not able 
to tell for sure whether your flowers had a yellow s.-ot in 
the thread or not, it rather looks as if they had had. 
I have never seen a pure white without some yellow arm I can 
find no mention that there has been one recorded. 
John Mutch of .h eler and Company got a very fine white 
in an importation some 30 or 40 years* far as I know 
this was the first rood white of the species that there 
was in “-merica. I understand that the front bulbs of this 
plant were sold soon afterward for 10,000 (Recognise the 
figure? It crops up often. —It is al so rumored that a small 
lot of £. ; ossiae var. Mrs. J . i, Lutterworth brought 
v ; 30,000 and ?;hen I men ti one' this to Geo. Butter worth 3t. 
one day he did not deny it,- nor confirm it). 1 saw the r 
few plants of £. Trianael var. alba owner by Mutch last 
spring, they are pretty fine but many a modern hybrid is 
better. 
1 do not know what these • whites will do in breeding, 
xhe constitution of many of them varies considerably. I 
suspect that you should get a few more whites out of seed 
made from the plant than out of an ordinary colored one 
but 1 d ubt that the percentage, would be startling. Genetically 
it is probably far from a pure white am, 1 guess that the 
white color is a recessive character. 
Cattleya gigas var. alba or £. gigas var. Dirmln Danbeau , 
the latter perhaps the best of th . whites of the species, 
almost never gives white progeny and i guess that 
