250 



lilies and other aquatic plants, the cultivation of which at this 

 point, however, can only be satisfactorily accomplished when the 

 river valley is freed of muskrats, on which a more or less con- 

 tinuous war has been waged for several years and large numbers 

 of the animals taken by traps, but, while less numerous than a 

 few years ago, they are still very troublesome, and find in the 

 rootstocks oi Castalia one of their favorite foods. 



The contract price for the bridge was eleven thousand dollars ; 

 the cost of path approaches, excavation for the river, and for the 

 pond, will probably amount to fifteen hundred or two thousand 

 dollars. 



N. L. Britton. 



THE AMES COLLECTION OF ORCHIDS. 



In the September number of this Journal reference was made 

 to this valuable collection of orchids, recently acquired. The 

 collection has now been temporarily arranged so that it has 

 been possible to study and briefly describe it. 



Early in September Mr. Oakes Ames offered this collection to 

 the Garden, and the writer immediately went to North Easton, 



This work was greatly facilitated by the assistance of Mr. Ames, 

 who not only gave his own time in going over the collection 

 and carefully inspecting the labels, furnishing such as were miss- 

 ing, but also the service of his men in packing and shipping the 

 plants. The collection was, until last summer, located at his 

 greenhouses at North Easton. At that time, however, it was re- 

 moved to a range of houses located some five miles from that 

 place. To transport over this distance a collection of such size 

 was not a small undertaking. It took six wagon-loads to ac- 

 complish it, the wagons being arranged to accommodate two 

 tiers on each trip. Arrangements were made with the railroad 

 company for a freight car which was placed on a siding. Staging 

 was placed in the car, as the floor space was by no means ade- 



placed in one end and one in the other, and the smaller plants, 



