VI 



figured the "nucleus of the cell," an all-important body, 

 the first description of which Avas published by Robert 

 Brown in 1833. 



In the first edition of Alton's Hortus Keivensis 15 non- 

 British species are enumerated as cultivated at Kew. 

 Sir J. E. Smith wrote : " We have scarcely seen any one 

 species of this genus [^Epidendrum'], except in a dry 

 state, before the year 1787, when E. cochleatum flowered 

 at Kew, nor was it till October 1782 that E. fragrans, 

 of Swartz, exhibited its rich and elegant bloom in the 

 same rich collection. At present several species are to be 

 seen flowering in the spring and autumn," 



In the second edition of the Ho?'his Kewensls (1813) 

 115 species are enumerated, of which 84 are exotics 

 belonging to 39 genera, " the greater number," John 

 Smith states in his Records of Kew (p. 228) " being 

 epiphytal and natives of the West Indies, a few of the 

 East Indies, Cape of Good Hope, and New South Wales." 



According to the same writer Dr. Roxburgh sent a 

 number of species from India in the early part of the 

 present century. These, writes John Smith, " I found 

 growing in 1822, on a shelf above a flue against the back 

 wall in what was then called the propagation house ; 

 the Aerides growing and flowering freely, its roots 

 clinging to the back wall, as also Sacco/abiuni guttatum. 

 There were also plants of Dendrnhiam Pierardi and 

 D. cucullatum flowering freely, which had recently been 

 brought home from Calcutta by Mr. Pierard." But it was 

 to Roxburgh that English gardens owed, besides the first 

 Aerides^ the first Dendrobiuni, and the first Vanda. 



