PRELIMIXARY NOTICE. 



This Maimnl i< lieiu*; compiled to supply amateur;* ami cultivators of 

 exotic Orchids with a fuller account of the princijial geuera, species 

 ami varieties cultivated under slass. than is coniaiued in the Manuals 

 hitherto in ust-. 



The rapid extension of Orchid culture during the last quarter of a 

 century, resulting from the increased taste fi>r and appreciation of this 

 beautiful and interesting order of plants, has, in our opinion, ireateil 

 the dcsiderofum \vhich we are now attempting to supply. The prominent 

 place, too, occupied by Orchids in the columns of the Horticultural 

 Press, and the surprising amount of practical and varied information 

 respecting them disseminated through its agency, has also stimulated 

 the desire to ol^tain all the leading facts in a condensed form, to which 

 easy reference may at any time be made. 



So numerous are the species and varieties of (Orchids at present in 

 cultivation, and t(^ which additions are constantly being made by new 

 discoveries and by artiticial hybridisation, that the labour attending the 

 compilation of a ^fanual sufficiently comprehensive to meet the wants 

 of ctiltivatoi-s umst necessarily demand much time. ^loreover, the 

 present unsatisfactory state of Orchidology. especially in its horticul- 

 tural asi>ect and its complicated and unscientific nomenclature, lune 

 rendered the com]»ilation of such a ^lanual within a stated time almost 

 an impossibility. 



Under these circumstances, and yielding to the solicitations of jiatrons 

 and friends, we have decided upon issuing the work in parts, each ]>art 

 containing a monttgrapli of the cidtivated species and Aarieties of nne 

 of the most important geuera, or of a group of genera. 



Little explanation of the plan of the work is here needed : the parts 

 as issued must speak for themselves. We have only to state that in 

 the scientific classification and sequence of the genera we have followed, 

 with but trifling deviations, the arrangement of Bentham and Hooker 

 as elaborated in their (ienem Plaafannn, the most profound and, at the 

 same time, the most intelhgible exposition of the Orchidea? extant. In 

 the nomenclature of the species, we have adhered to the Laws of 

 Botanical nomenclature adopted by the International Botanical Congress, 

 held at Paris in August, 1867. 



In the descripti«-n of the sj»ecies, we have been compelled to use 

 oecasiomUly a few technical terms to avoid cumbrous circimilocutions : 

 at the conclusion of the work we propose giving a glossary of the 

 terms so used. In the cultural notes we have quoted temperatures in 

 the Centigrade scale with the equivalent Fahrenheit readings, in the 

 hope thatthe far more rational scale, now almost universally adopted 

 in scientific investigations, may also come into use in horticulture. 

 The literarv references in italics indicate coloured plates of the species 

 i>r varietv de<rril>e<l. 



