The Plate represents a remarkable state of this now well-known plant, which I have observed only in the collection of Mr. Aspinall Turner, of Pendlebury House, near Manchester. In its normal or ordinary condition _O. Bictoniense_ produces--in the winter months--simple, upright flower-stems, but in Mr. Turner's plant the stems are branched, and, what is still more extraordinary, are _leafy_ at their extremities! Nor was this peculiarity confined to the growth of a single season, for it has already reappeared at least three years in succession! It produces a very singular effect, though it can hardly be said to add to the beauty of the plant.
_O. Bictoniense_, so called after Lady Rolle, of Bicton, in Devonshire, was the earliest species of this popular genus that ever reached England alive. It also formed a portion of the first box of Orchids that I ever received from Guatemala, whence they were sent to me in 1835 by my invaluable friend George Ure Skinner, now (1867) alas!--most suddenly and unexpectedly--numbered with the dead!
This is not the place for a memoir of that generous and enthusiastic spirit;--let it suffice to state that Mr. Skinner was on his way to Guatemala for a final visit, when he was attacked by yellow-fever early in February last on the Isthmus of Panama, and carried off after three days' illness! He was collecting plants on the Saturday before his death, and on the Wednesday he was a corpse! He was in his 63rd year, and had he but been permitted to return to England, would have crossed the Atlantic exactly forty times! He was the discoverer of _O. grande_ and _O. Uro-Skinneri_, already figured in this work, and of at least fifty other Orchids, including the well-known _Lycaste Skinneri_ perhaps the most useful and popular of its tribe.
DISSECTIONS.--1. Lip and column, seen sideways; 2. Ditto ditto, seen in front: _magnified_.
[Illustration: Odontoglossum Alexandræ. (_Weirs variety_)]
Of this charming Odontoglossum, which I had the honour to dedicate to H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, there appear to be innumerable varieties. Of these some--like the one figured at Plate XIV.--have crimson spots, others again are spotted with brown, while a third section--like the one represented in the Plate--have flowers of the purest white, relieved only by the rich golden crest of the lip. An excellent example of the latter variety was sent to me nearly two years ago by Mr. Paterson, of Ashville, Partrickhill, near Glasgow, and from this Mr. Fitch's drawing was obtained. Since then, other specimens of the same kind have been communicated to me, especially by Mr. Wentworth Buller, Mr. Jones, of Whalley Range, near Manchester, Mr. Bull, and Mr. Dawson of Meadow Bank. The last was an admirable specimen bearing as it did on a curved stalk about a dozen perfect flowers, all of which faced the same way, so as to form a sort of natural tiara exactly suited to a lady's head and which--especially when worn on dark hair--could not fail to produce a most beautiful effect.