Odontoglossum triumphans.—We have received, through the post, from J. Gordon, Esq., Aikenhead, Cathcart, near Glasgow, flowers of two distinct varieties of this beautiful species, varying both in size and in hue. One variety was of large size, and very bright in colour, the sepals and petals being of a clear golden yellow, barred and spotted with brownish-crimson, and the lip white, with the throat yellow, and the apical portion brownish-crimson. The other variety was smaller, and as Mr. T. Hogg, the gardener, informs us, was from a pseudobulb with two spikes bearing twenty-nine expanded flowers; in this the sepals and petals were nearly all brownish-crimson, with very little golden yellow, the lip white, with a large irregular blotch of brownish-crimson on the antical portion—B. S. W.
PL. 90. ODONTOGLOSSUM CORADINEI.
ODONTOGLOSSUM CORADINEI.
[[Plate 90].]
Native of New Grenada.
Epiphytal. Pseudobulbs elongate-ovate, compressed, somewhat ribbed, usually diphyllous. Leaves narrow, ligulate, or ligulate-oblong, acuminate, of a deep green colour, an extra one or more sometimes sheathing the base of the pseudobulbs. Scape radical, with small triangular bracts supporting a slender spreading raceme of nine to ten flowers, which forms a neat spike of about a foot in length. Flowers stellate, somewhat over three inches in breadth and length; sepals lanceolate, tapered to a long narrow point, pale yellow, with about two large irregular sometimes broken spots of chestnut-brown at some distance from the base; petals similar in form and colour, one inch and a half long, marked with a large often bipartite spot at a considerable distance from and one or two smaller spots nearer the base; lip shorter than the petals, obovate-oblong, apiculate, contracted in the middle, paler yellow, with a squarish spot of chestnut-brown on the middle or contracted portion, and a few spots or blotches near the base, where there is a crest of two upcurved horns. Column whitish, semiterete, with brown blotches in the sub-rhomboid wings, which are denticulate on the outer edge.
Odontoglossum Coradinei, Reichenbach fil., in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1872, 1068, fig. 251; Id. Xenia Orchidacea, ii. 208, t. 192, figs. 1-4.
This is one of the numerous imported forms of Odontoglots which are supposed to be natural hybrids, many of which are so beautiful and so much sought after, becoming greater favourites as time passes. We are by no means surprised at the growing taste for this charming Orchidic genus, since the plants are of easy culture, require nothing but cool treatment, and their flowers, which are of long duration, are borne on graceful spikes.
The form we now represent is distinct in colour, and comes in as a good contrast with the varieties of Odontoglossum Alexandræ (crispum)—a contrast which it should always be sought to establish in making a collection, in order to produce a picturesque effect in the house, since the different varieties when associated show each other off to advantage.
The plant was found in New Grenada by the collectors Chesterton and Coradine, and was named by request of the former (who has lately died) in honour of his companion in travel. It appears to be a hybrid between Odontoglossum triumphans and some of the O. odoratum group, and would seem to be somewhat variable in character. The sketch we publish was taken from a plant in the collection of Robert Warner, Esq., Broomfield, near Chelmsford, who has the largest and finest collection of Odontoglots we have seen, extending to about twelve thousand plants. In this collection we have seen many hundred spikes of O. Alexandræ (crispum)—and other kinds in bloom at the same time, and, arranged as they were in two long houses, the sight was a glorious one, never to be forgotten. A similar magnificent display is obtained every year.