INTRODUCTORY. 



Many thanks to all those friends of our orchids who have 

 given me the consideration of a critic. Whether friendly 

 to my ideas or unpleasantly touched by some of rny pas- 

 sages, they are welcome alike as long as they accorded me 

 justice in dealing with my views as sincere. 



My expression of high regard also to all those orchidol- 

 ogists who have added so extensively to our knowledge 

 about hybrids during the past year. Prof. R. A. Rolfe, 

 through the Orchid Review, our organ, has been foremost 

 in bringing clearness into many difficult and obscure matters. 

 I have distributed to their proper places all that information 

 given to us about Cypripedium Petri, virens, Siamense, Ap- 

 pletonianum. The positiveness about the Cattleyas in regard 

 to their standing as species, and the last lot of Hybrid Odon- 

 toglossa, caused me to rearrange the synonymy in numerous 

 cases. Mr. T. L. Mead, of Oviedo, Fla., Mr. Reginald Young, 

 of Fringilla, Sefton Park, and Mr. T. W. Swinburne, Corn- 

 dean Hall, Winchcombe, the Champion of our Cysepedia, 

 deserve special mention for their varied and successful efforts. 

 Messrs. Veitch and Mr. Norman C. Cookson, through his gar- 

 dener, Wm. Murray, and Mr. C. L. N. Ingram, through Mr. 

 T. W. Bond, have been the most successful contributors to 

 the list of hybrids. 



The consequent extension of our knowledge has forced 

 me to rearrange many hybrids, their parents having acquired 

 independent places as species. This gives new keys to the 

 crosses raised with Lselia Dayana and LI. pumila, with Cat- 

 tleya amethystoglossa and Harrisoniana. Some of this 

 information was published while the print of my volume 

 was under way, too late to give room to the needed correc- 



(iii) 



