February 26, 1S96.] 



Garden and Forest. 



83 



England, and undoubtedly the principal reason for the decline 

 of this wild fruit is the exhaustive conditions of our soil. In 

 early times the clearing of an old wood gave rise to abundance 

 of these berries, and they were noted as being abundant in 

 our meadows. The Strawberry, however, is not the only 

 natural crop that has changed. Many of our meadows, which 

 now produce a crop of grass hardly worth cutting, once sup- 

 ported a luxuriant growth of the Fowl Meadow Grass, " thick 

 and long, as high as a man's middle, some as high as the 

 shoulders, so that a good mower might cut three load a day." 

 To-day, however, hardly less should be expected, since for 

 generations crops have been removed from the soil without 

 the. return of any plant-food, whereas in olden time, before 

 the advent of the white man, everything was allowed to decay 

 where it fell, which meant a considerable yearly increase of 

 organic matter to the soil. 



Agricultural College, Amherst, Mass. G. E. Stone. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 Orchids at Kew. 



A HAND-LIST of Orchids cultivated in the Royal Gar- 

 dens, Kew, has just been issued and may be obtained 

 from the Curator, price sixpence. This is the fourth of the 

 series of catalogues of the Kew collections of living plants 

 printed within the last two years, the other three being 

 part I. of the hardy trees and shrubs, Ferns and Fern allies, 

 and hardy herbaceous and alpine plants. The intention 

 of the Director is to catalogue the whole of the collections 

 of living plants at Kew, the total number of species being 

 estimated roughly at twenty thousand. A list of the coni- 

 fers is already in the printer's hands, and this will be 

 followed by the second part of the hardy trees and shrubs. 



These lists are of horticultural value because, while they 

 comprise a large number of species of more or less interest 

 to botanists, they also include practically all the plants 

 cultivated in gardens for ornamental or economic purposes. 

 No pains have been spared to make the nomenclature accu- 

 rate and in accordance with the views of recognized 

 authorities. Many garden names are reduced as synonyms 

 or errors, but through lack of sufficient material or informa- 

 tion some which are provisional have been retained. The 

 author of the name, habitat of the plant and, where possi- 

 ble, a reference to a published figure are given with each 

 species. The value of these lists must be evident to any 

 practical horticulturist who has to deal with large collec- 

 tions and to whom the almost hopeless confusion of names 

 by dealers and others must have often presented difficulty. 

 By dealing thus thoroughly and comprehensively with the 

 whole of cultivated plants, Kew has rendered great service 

 to horticulture, whose followers, it is to be hoped, will adopt 

 the names preferred by the Kew authorities and thus bring 

 about uniformity where, till now, there have been confusion 

 and doubt. 



The Orchid list enumerates 200 genera and 1,800 species 

 (including about fifty garden hybrids) as being represented 

 by living examples at Kew. The greater proportion of 

 these are what are popularly known as botanical curiosi- 

 ties, which would not find favor with those who are 

 interested in beautiful flowers, but which, nevertheless, are 

 worth a place at Kew, where the main object is botanical, 

 and to represent the order in as comprehensive a way as 

 possible. As an example I may cite the genus Pleuro- 

 thallis, of which there are forty species at Kew, but not 

 more than half a dozen of them would be looked at a second 

 time by the ordinary collector. The genus Bulbophyllum 

 is represented by sixty-four species, Cirrhopetalum by 

 thirty-one, Angroecum by thirty-nine, Dendrobium by one 

 hundred and forty, Masdevalha by eighty, Oncidium by one 

 hundred and eight species, and so on. 



This collection has been slowly built up in various ways, 

 partly by purchase or exchange, partly through the kind- 

 ness and interest of travelers and residents in countries 

 where Orchids abound, and by the generosity of some of 

 the collectors and cultivators of Orchids in this country. 

 Many of the plants are small, perhaps obtained from a 

 scrap taken from a specimen sent to the herbarium for 



identification, all such that come into the Kew net being 

 good fish. 



The introduction to the hand-list contains some interest- 

 ing information about the Kew collection in particular, as 

 well as about Orchids in general. The accommodation for 

 Orchids at Kew is not first-rate, only two houses to which 

 the public are admitted being available for their display, 

 and these are so ill-adapted for the cultivation of Orchids 

 that they are practically only show-houses in which the 

 plants are placed when in flower. The bulk of the collec- 

 tion is grown in some half-a-dozen small houses to which 

 the public cannot conveniently be admitted. It would, 

 however, be possible to provide houses which would be 

 suitable for the culture of Orchids, and to which the public 

 might have free access. 



Orchids have been continuously cultivated at Kew from 

 their earliest introduction into this country. The varied 

 fortunes which have attended the collection practically 

 reflect the history of the progress which has been made in 

 the art of growing Orchids under artificial conditions. 



The first exotic Orchid which was introduced into English 

 gardens was Bletia verecunda, which was obtained from 

 Providence Island, Bahamas, by Peter Collinson, in 1731, 

 and flowered in the following year in the garden of Mr. 

 Wager. About the year 1778 Phajus grandifolius was im- 

 ported from China by Dr. Fothergill, and a full-sized colored 

 figure of it is given in the first edition of the Hoi /us Kcw- 

 e?isis under the name of Limodorum Tankervilla?. A pecu- 

 liar interest attaches to this plant because it was in it and 

 at Kew that in 1802 Francis Bauer, who was "resident 

 draughtsman for fifty years to the Royal Botanic Garden," 

 discovered and figured the "nucleus of the case," an all- 

 important body, the first description of which was pub- 

 lished by Robert Brown in 1833. 



In the first edition of Aiton's Hortus Kewcnsis fifteen non- 

 British species are enumerated as cultivated at Kew. Sir 

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

 cies 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 col- 

 lection. At present several species are to be seen flowering 

 in the spring and autumn." 



In the second edition of the Horhis Kewensis (1 Si 3) 115 

 species are enumerated, of which eighty-four are exotics 

 belonging to thirty-nine genera. In 1848 the number of 

 species cultivated at Kew had increased to 755, and in 1872 

 the number of species and varieties was 851, belonging to 

 138 genera. Since then the collection has grown steadily. 

 The collection of Orchids in the botanic gardens at Glas- 

 nevin, Dublin, is almost, if not quite, as rich in species as 

 that at Kew. 



The essential cultural requirements of Orchids were not 

 known till long after they had attracted the attention of 

 horticulturists. It is interesting to note the struggles of our 

 great-grandfathers to discover the conditions most suitable 

 for them. We who know all about it are surprised that any 

 intelligent cultivator should have tried to grow epiphytic 

 plants "in common soil in pots plunged to the rim in a 

 tan bed." Teak baskets, sphagnum moss, peat fibre and 

 charcoal appear to us to be exactly what any intelligent 

 schoolboy would have recommended as supplying the right 

 material for an epiphyte. But, like all useful discoveries 

 and inventions, simple as they appear to us, they were not 

 worked out without much thought, experiment and the sac- 

 rifice of many plants. One of the shrewdest of botanists 

 working in the van of the horticultural art of his time. Dr. 

 Lindley, stated in a paper read to the Royal Horticultural 

 Society in 1S30 that "high temperature, deep shade and 

 excessive humidity are the conditions essential to the well- 

 being of Orchids." Thirteen years later another Orchid 

 authority, Mr. Bateman, recommended the same treatment, 

 adding that a resting season was necessary. This treat- 

 ment became the only orthodox one, and was persisted in 

 for upward of thirty years. 



