Monograph of Odontoglossum/tranche1
Plate I
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Odontoglossum nebulosum.
Plate I.
ODONTOGLOSSUM NEBULOSUM, Lindley.
CLOUDED ODONTOGLOSSUM.
Odontoglossum maxillare, Lemaire (nec Lindley), Illustration Horticole (1859), t. 200.
Habitat in Mexico, prope Oaxaca (Karwinski, Galeotti, etc.), circiter 5000 ft.
DESCRIPTION.
It was at Munich, in the year 1835, that I first became acquainted with this fine Odontoglossum having, through the kindness of Professor Von Martius, been allowed to examine the rich collection of dried specimens that Baron Karwinski had then recently brought home with him from Mexico. Two years afterwards living plants were sent to me from Oaxaca, which happening to arrive in the midst of that remarkably severe winter 1837-38, I naturally expected would have been destroyed on their way; so far, however, from this being the case, they appeared to have sustained little or no injury from the cold, and on being placed in a stove they soon began to push both roots and leaves. All went well so long as the temperature of the house did not exceed 70°, but when the winter had passed away and they had to face the intense heat at which the Orchid-houses of that period were ordinarily maintained, they then quickly lost their vigour and before a twelvemonth had passed were all gone, victims—like a multitude of other invaluable plants—to our then ignorance of the conditions under which alone the Orchids of cool countries could be expected to thrive!
I am not aware that this plant ever flowered in this country until within the last year or two, certainly no figure of it has ever been published in any English botanical periodical; I have, however, found in a French work (the Illustration Horticole), under the name of O. maxillare, what is obviously the same as the plant represented in the Plate. I should myself have probably fallen into the same mistake as Professor Lemaire, had I not enjoyed the opportunity—which he unfortunately had not—of examining the original specimens in Dr. Lindley's herbarium, and from which that able botanist drew up his description (in the Folia Orchidacea) of the two species. O. maxillare, of which Dr. Lindley only examined a single flower—though he made a most careful drawing—is shown by a glance at the latter, to be a totally different thing; it has moreover, I fear, long since disappeared from our collections. In Dr. Lindley's description the flower-scape is said to be terminal, which in nature it never is, although from the way in which Karwinski's wild specimen was glued together, it certainly presents that appearance in the herbarium. The column moreover, and the base of the sepals and petals, are said to be pubescent, though nothing of the kind is visible to the naked eye when the flowers are fresh. With a powerful magnifying glass pubescence may certainly be seen.
Odontoglossum nebulosum flowers at different seasons of the year, always sending up its scape at the same time as the young growth. It is of the easiest culture.[1] The figure was derived from a beautiful specimen that flowered last November in the collection of J. Day, Esq., of Tottenham, who grows this and many other Odontoglossa in high perfection.
Dissections.—1. Lip, seen in front; 2. Ditto, seen sideways: both magnified.
Plate II
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Odontoglossum Uro-Skinneri.
Plate II.
ODONTOGLOSSUM URO-SKINNERI, Lindl.
MR. SKINNER'S ODONTOGLOSSUM.
Odontoglossum Uro-skinneri, Gardeners' Chronicle, vol. 1859, pp. 708, 724.
Habitat in Guatemala, prope Santa Catarina de los Altos, 5-6000 ft., Skinner.DESCRIPTION
.
This is a robust and stately plant, nearly allied to O. Bictoniense to which at one time Dr. Lindley was disposed to refer it, but far larger and handsomer in all its parts. Its broad pseudobulbs which become covered in their second year with a multitude of small reddish dots, its wide sepals and petals, the spotting of its lip, and its general resemblance to Zygopetalum Mackaii will, however, sufficiently distinguish it. Being found at a higher elevation than O. Bictoniense, it requires to be kept more cool, and as it affects dark and wet banks in its native wilds, it is better to place it in a north house where it can be more readily protected from the sun. Treated in this way it grows luxuriantly and flowers abundantly at Knypersley, whence the specimen figured in the Plate was derived. Its flowering season seems to vary, for while with me it is now (May) coming into bloom, about London November is the more usual month.
O. Uro-Skinneri was the latest discovery of my indefatigable friend Mr. Skinner (after whom it was named by Dr. Lindley), and who, though now settled in England, is as much devoted to his favourite tribe as when, while resident in Guatemala, he was wont to delight the Orchidists of Europe by the multitude of new and beautiful plants that he was constantly dispatching across the main.
Dissection.—1. Side view of lip and column: magnified.
Plate III
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Odontoglossum phalænopsis.
Plate III.
ODONTOGLOSSUM PHALÆNOPSIS, Rchb. fil.
MOTH-LIKE ODONTOGLOSSUM.
Odontoglossum phalænopsis, Rchb. fil. in Seemann Bonplandia, ii. 278; Pescatorea, Linden et Rchb. fil. ii. 44.
Miltonia Pulchella, Hort.
Habitat in N. Granada, prope Aspasica, alt. 5-6000 ft., Schlim.DESCRIPTION.
This most charming Odontoglossum was discovered in the year 1850 by M. Schlim at that time engaged in exploring the higher regions of New Granada in the service of M. Linden to whose well-known horticultural establishment at Brussels he had the honour of introducing it. The species was seen in flower for the first time in the year 1856 when it appeared at some Horticultural Exhibitions both on the Continent and in London and, as may readily be conceived, attracted universal admiration. Since that time its lovely blossoms have been rarely produced, owing no doubt to its cultivation having been imperfectly understood. It has however, I believe, bloomed occasionally in the collection of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and more recently in that of E. M‘Morland, Esq., of Haverstock Hill, with whom it thrives amazingly, and to whose kindness I am indebted for the opportunity of figuring it. In its native country it is found in a mild climate growing on the ground, or upon rocks in moist and shady situations, and by simply imitating these conditions Mr. M‘Morland cultivates it with the most perfect success. His plants are kept in pots, with living moss on the surface, and their base resting in pans of water the evaporation from which cannot fail to be highly beneficial. The temperature of the house in which they are grown is that of an ordinary greenhouse, but the air is always humid, and water is freely given because, in consequence of the open potting, it can pass as freely away. The plants seem to grow and flower almost all the year round, though their proper and principal flowering-season is in May and June.
O. phalænopsis is entirely distinct from any species of the genus yet in cultivation, but it is allied to a still finer plant detected by Warszewicz in Costa Rica, and called in honour of its discoverer O. Warszewiczii by Professor Reichenbach.
Dissections.—1. Lip. seen sideways; and 2. Front view of lip: both magnified.
Plate IV
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Odontoglossum Insleayii.
Plate IV.
ODONTOGLOSSUM INSLEAYI, Lindl.
INSLEAY'S ODONTOGLOSSUM.
Oncidium Insleayi, Barker in Bot. Reg. 1840, Misc. 21; Bateman, Orchid. Mex. et Guat. t. 21; Van Houtte, Flore des Serres, 1848, t. 62.
Habitat in Mexico, Barker; Oaxaca, Loddiges; 5-6000 ft.
DESCRIPTION.
This Odontoglossum was originally introduced from Mexico by the late Mr. Barker, of Birmingham, after whose gardener it was named by Dr. Lindley. It flowered with Mr. Barker somewhere about the year 1840, when a figure was prepared for the 'Orchidaceæ of Mexico and Guatemala,' but I had not then the opportunity of examining the plant, nor indeed did I ever actually see it in flower until the autumn of last year (1863) when I happened to meet with the specimen from which the illustration is derived, growing and blooming vigorously in the collection of Dr. Cauty, of Liverpool. The species had, in fact, virtually disappeared from collections during an interregnum of twenty years, and its reappearance is entirely due to the adoption of the rational system of cool treatment now happily prevailing, and under which it may be cultivated with the greatest ease.
In habit O. Insleayi is quite indistinguishable from O. grande; and although its flowers are far inferior in beauty to those of that glorious species, they bear a certain sort of resemblance to them in their colouring and general arrangement. The structure is however entirely different, for while O. grande has no bristle-like appendages to its column, and therefore belongs to the section of the genus which has been called Xanthoglossum by Dr. Lindley, the processes in question are clearly present (see Dissections) in the case of O. Insleayi, thereby bringing it under the preceding section, to which the title of Euodontoglossum has been given by the same authority. The time and mode of flowering are also different in the two plants, for while in O. grande the flower-scapes appear almost simultaneously with the leaves, and are usually in perfection in July, those of O. Insleayi are not produced until long after the pseudobulbs have been matured, nor do they expand their blossoms until late in the autumn.
As is the case with most of its congeners, there are many varieties of O. Insleayi, some of which are much less attractive in their colouring than the one represented in the Plate, while others have much larger flowers, as in the example given in the vignette which is copied from an old woodcut in the Journal of the Horticultural Society. Unfortunately this latter variety has, I greatly fear, been lost to the country, but collectors should endeavour to reintroduce it.
I have already referred to Dr. Cauty's success in the treatment of the subject of the present Plate, but his skill and care are equally conspicuous in the management of a miscellaneous collection of Orchids, which he contrives to grow under circumstances such as would have deterred most men from attempting to grow any plants at all. The house in which he lives is in the very centre of Liverpool, and has in its rear a small back court, such as is usually devoted to dustbins and coal-holes, but where Dr. Cauty has found space for three little Orchid-houses of different temperatures in which the Orchids of different climes are perfectly at home. I can really see no reason why in all large towns—in London more especially—Dr. Cauty's example should not be extensively followed, and the luxury of an Orchid-house be thus brought within the reach of many who now consider it quite beyond their grasp.
Dissections.—1. Lip, seen sideways; 2. Ditto, seen in front: both magnified.
Flower (nat. size) of a large variety of O. Insleayi.
Plate V
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Odontoglossum Pescatorei.
Plate V.
ODONTOGLOSSUM PESCATOREI, Lindley.
M. PESCATORE'S ODONTOGLOSSUM.
Odontoglossum Pescatorei, Lindley, in Paxton's Flower Garden, iii. t. 90; Pescatorea, t. 1; Warner's Select Orchidaceous Plants, t. 25.
Odontoglossum Nobile, Reichenbach fil. in Linnæa, 22, 850.
Habitat in New Granada, Province of Pamplona, at the height of from 5000 to 6000 feet, Funck and Schlim.
DESCRIPTION.
This lovely plant was discovered in the year 1847 by MM. Funck and Schlim when on a botanical mission to New Granada, in the service of M. Linden. According to its discoverers, it is not unfrequently met with in the provinces of Pamplona and Ocaña, at an elevation above the sea-level of about 5000 feet, inhabiting the oak forests which—where the climate is mild—clothe the eastern slopes of the glorious Cordillera.
O. Pescatorei flowered with M. Linden for the first time in 1851, and attracted, as well it might, universal admiration. Nothing indeed, even in the beautiful family to which it belongs, can surpass the delicacy of its blossoms, with their charming mixture of rose and white, relieved by a few deep-crimson stains scattered irregularly over the lip. Its habit too is good, and its stately panicle of flowers well-proportioned to the size of the bulbs and leaves. It blooms abundantly in the spring months, and its blossoms continue at least six weeks in perfection. We need not wonder that a plant with such a rare combination of good qualities should have been selected by M. Linden to do honour to his patron the late M. Pescatore, after whom he named it, and in whose sumptuous work ('Pescatorea') it forms the first plate.
Although the species, owing to the difficulty of importing it alive, is still exceedingly rare in this country, it has already flowered in many of the principal collections, especially in those of Mr. Rucker, Mr. Basset, Mr. Day, and Mr. Dawson, of Meadow Bank near Edinburgh. With the last-named gentleman a panicle, with sixty flowers upon it, is now (April, 1864) in full beauty. Mr. Fitch's drawing was taken from an exquisite variety, of which Mr. Day is the fortunate possessor, and which he kindly placed at my disposal for the purpose of being figured in this Work. In the Plate the flower-spike is represented as panicled because such—as in the case of all the other varieties—is no doubt its normal state; as yet however racemes only have been produced.
The treatment recommended for other Odontoglossa (see under Plate I.) will suit O. Pescatorei, which is as easily managed as any of the genus.
Dissections.—1. Lip, seen sideways; 2. Lip, front view: magnified.
- ↑ As most of the Odontoglossa require to be treated in the same way, I transcribe, from the 'Guide to Cool-Orchid Growing' (Reeve, 1864), the following instructions for the culture of the genus:—"They will all succeed perfectly in a low lean-to house facing the north, the mean temperature of which need not exceed 60°. They should stand on a shelf of slate or stone, near the glass, but should always be protected from the direct rays of the sun. Constant humidity should be maintained by damping the shelves and floors, but the plants themselves will only require water in moderation, and what is given to them should pass away freely, for if it stagnates, or if the compost in which they grow becomes sodden, the roots will immediately decay. A gentle evaporation is greatly assisted by placing layers of moss—to be kept damp of course—on the shelves whereon the plants stand. Odontoglossa cannot endure wooden blocks, but will thrive in a compost of which one-half consists of small broken potsherds, the remainder being a mixture of shredded sphagnum (dusted with fine sand) and fibrous peat. About one-third of the entire depth of the pots may be filled with this mixture, the other two-thirds containing nothing but large pieces of broken pots, so as to admit as much air as possible to the roots. The pots in which the plants are grown should stand on other pots (inverted) placed in saucers of water, in order to secure humidity and protect them from wood-lice. Nearly all the species flower during the winter or spring months, a circumstance that greatly enhances their value. Many, e. g. O. pulchellum, are deliciously fragrant, and the flowers of nearly all the species remain in perfection for weeks, whether left on the plants or cut for bouquets. In so vast a genus we shall, no doubt, meet with many idiosyncrasies, but nine-tenths of the species will flourish under the treatment indicated above, and which may be regarded as suitable to the majority of cool Orchids. Most Odontoglossa are, like the Masdevallias, very impatient of the knife, and cannot therefore be rapidly multiplied. They have also a peculiar aversion to fumigation by tobacco, which causes their leaves to fall off."