ORCHIDACEARUJI GENERA AND gPECIES. 493 



aucl in a little dingle much lower down the valley. 1 also gathered 

 it ni June, 1897, on rocks at the waterfall at Rhiwargor, near Lake 

 Vyrnwy, Montgomeryshire. This very rare species was first found 

 in this country hy Mr. Holt in 1885 at Tyn-y-groes, in Merioneth- 

 shire, and it has also heeu found in the Lake District. — Ortliothcciuin 

 intricatnm B. & S. — Eiirhijnchium Swartzii Hobk. — Hi/pniim unci- 

 natiun Hedw. — H. cnpressifoniie L. var. cricetonun B. & S., and var. 

 elatum B. & S. (cfr,). — H, eugynum Schp. — May Egberts. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Orchidaceanim Genera and Species. Exposuit Fritz Kraenzlin. 

 8vo. Vol. i. Fase. 1-3, pp. 1-192. Berlin : Mayer and 

 Miiller. 1897. Price 60 pf. per sheet of 16 pages to sub- 

 scribers to the whole work ; 70 pf. per sheet to subscribers to 

 single volumes. 



The number of species included in Lindley's Genera and Species 

 of Orchidaceous Plants is estimated by the author at 1980, and the 

 work was ten years in execution, it having proved " a most 

 laborious task to examine with the necessary care so large a 

 number of plants of a very intricate structure in a dried state." 

 Botanists have a better opportunity now than had Lindley of ex- 

 amining live orchids. Many species, in fact, owe their introduction 

 to science to the horticulturist, who, to his credit, is generally 

 liberal in supplying workers with fresh flowers, though not always 

 so willing to divulge the exact native locality of a new species. But 

 there are still m.my which are known only from dried specimens, 

 and the quantity of material has increased enormously since 

 Lindley's time. Add to this the increase in the literature of the 

 subject, and it becomes evident that a task which sixty years ago was 

 difficult and laborious is by no means less so now. It was on this 

 account that the greatest exponent of the order since Lindley, the 

 younger Reichenbach, shrank from, or at any rate made no attempt 

 at, a revision of the group as a whole —unless such revision exists in 

 MS. with his ill-fated collection at Vienna. One might have looked 

 to Kcw or the British Museum for the much-desired continuation 

 of the Orchidaceons Plants and the Folia Oichidacea, and many 

 valuable contributions have emanated from both these institutions, 

 associated with the names of Robert Brown, Sir Joseph Hooker, 

 and Messrs. Ridley and Rolfe. But it has been left to Berlin to 

 produce, in the fascicles now before us, the beginning of a modern 

 account of the genera and species of orchids. We say " tlie 

 beginning " advisedly. The 192 pages contain about 170 species. 

 Bentham, in the Genera Plantanun, fourteen years ago, gave 

 betw^ean 4500 and 5000 as the number then known, and his 

 estimate would fall considerably below the mark at the present day. 

 Observing the same proportion, therefore. Prof. Kraenzlin may look 

 forward to a work of nearly 6000 pages ! Six volumes are contem- 

 plated, and the distiibutiou of ihe tribes is partly announced in 



