Odontoglossum Pescatorei Veitchianum has the same habit of growth as the type. The flowers on the specimen which bloomed last year, and was certificated both by the Royal Horticultural and Royal Botanic Societies, formed a close raceme, and were large and showy, the sepals and petals being white, heavily transversely blotched at the base with a lovely shade of crimson-purple, the lip being also white, and spotted around the base with the same colour, while the bright yellow disk was striately marked with crimson. This specimen bore several flowers on the spike, and we have no doubt that as the plant increases in strength the spikes will branch into panicles, as those of most of the plants of O. Pescatorei are branching in habit. They are graceful in appearance, and of long duration, which renders them most useful for decorative purposes, the more so as even when cut and placed in water they keep fresh for a long time. The treatment these plants require is the same as that of O. Alexandræ and the other cool-house Orchids.
The greatest pest in the cultivation of cool Orchids, and one which is consequently a great annoyance to cultivators, is a small black slug that takes up its home in the moss and about the plants, and which often eats many of the young flower spikes when they first appear. These should be sought after night and morning as it is at these periods they do their mischief. They seem to enjoy the temperature of the cool Orchid house. The method we adopt for catching them is to look the moss carefully over at once, when the spikes first appear, and be sure there are no slugs allowed to remain among it; then we place a wire round the pot, and suspend it from the roof, and in this manner we secure the flower spikes. This is done when they are young, which is the favourite time for these marauders to attack them. The plants are well worth this trouble, as after watching them for a length of time it is most annoying to find the flowers destroyed.
Odontoglossum Alexandræ.—We have received from H. J. Buchan, Esq., Wilton House, Southampton, a grand spike of a fine variety of this most variable Orchid. The flowers are large, and of fine form and substance; the sepals and petals are pure white, beautifully serrated; the lip is broad and distinctly coloured on the upper part. This is one of the best forms of O. Alexandræ we have met with. Mr. Buchan has a good collection of cool Orchids, and has been growing them for many years.—B. S. W.
Odontoglossum Jenningsianum.—R. Smith, Esq., Brentham Park, Stirling, has sent us a splendid inflorescence of this novelty. The flowers are produced in a panicle, which is much branched, and bears numerous blossoms. This species somewhat resembles a spotted form of O. Alexandræ in the markings of the flowers, but the form is more like that of O. Andersonianum.—B. S. W.
PL. 69. CATTLEYA ACLANDIÆ.
CATTLEYA ACLANDIÆ.
[[Plate 69].]
Native of Bahia.
Epiphytal. Stems (pseudobulbs) clavate, slightly furrowed, jointed, four to five inches long, sheathed at the joints with membranaceous spathes. Leaves terminal, two in number, elliptic, obtuse, thick and fleshy in texture, dark green. Scape terminal, bearing about two flowers and issuing from between the leaves. Flowers large, about three inches across, and strikingly beautiful from the boldly contrasted colours; sepals and petals nearly equal, somewhat fleshy, obovate-lanceolate, yellowish green heavily and transversely blotched and spotted with rich dark chocolate-purple, the markings more distinctly coloured on the inner surface, but apparent though less distinct on the back or exterior surface; lip large, fully two inches long, flat, panduriform, three-lobed, the lateral lobes pale rose marked with transverse veins, small and not enclosing the column, the front lobe one and a half inch across, broadly kidney-shaped, emarginate, of a bright magenta colour, the disk marked by a yellow line. Column dark magenta, parallel with the lip, obovate, with two wing-like margins.
Cattleya Aclandiæ, Lindley, Botanical Register, 1840, t. 48; Paxton’s Magazine of Botany ix, 1; Flore des Serres, t. 674; Illustration Horticole, t. 565; Hooker, Botanical Magazine, t. 5039; Bateman, Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants, t. 119; Williams, Orchid Grower’s Manual, 5 ed., 114.