258 THE ORCHID REVIEW. (SEPTEMBER, 1922+ 
woods of Demerara, hanging from the branches of trees and suspending im 
the air the singular lips of its flowers like fairy baskets for the use of the 
birds and insects that inhabit the surrounding foliage.” The flowers have 
horn-like appendages at the base of the column which constantly distil 
water into the bucket-like epichile of the labellum, but the quantity 
generally diminishes with the age of the flower. 
ExporTinc Tuserous RoorepD ORCHIDS.—As some of our readers 
abroad occasionally desire information on packing plants for transit to 
England, the following extract from the Kew Bulletin (1914, p. 97) is of 
value :—‘‘ Tuberous rooted Orchids should be gathered at the end of the 
growing season, and kept dry for a few days until the foliage has withered. 
They may then be packed in a wooden box in wood shavings, paper, or any 
dry and light material. Straw and hay, however, are apt to become mouldy 
and should not be used for this purpose. The rhizomes, bulbs, or tubers: 
should be packed in the box in such a manner that they cannot move about, 
as they are very liable to perish if bruised during transit. When the 
rhizomes are small or thin, they travel best if packed in slightly moistened. 
light material, suchas cocoanut fibre, peat soil, sawdust, or wood shavings.” 
BARLIA LONGIBRACTEATA.—Through the kindness of Mr. W. H, St. 
Quintin, Scampston Hall, Rillington, York, we have received an excellent 
photograph of the tubers and root system of Barlia longibracteata. Lindley, 
who -figured the plant in 1819, calls it the Winter Orchid of Sicily, and 
remarks that Mr. Swainson, of Liverpool, who introduced it to cultivations 
observed that in its native home it is the first that flowers among the many 
little-known species found in Sicily, generally opening its blossoms in the 
beginning of February, the depth of a Mediterranean winter. In February, 
1906, Dr. Gunther brought to Kew a fine inflorescence bearing eighteen 
expanded flowers, produced by a bulb that had been brought from the 
Riviera some time previously, and cultivated in the open ground at Bury 
St..Edmunds, Norfolk. A note, bearing the initials “W.B.H.” in the 
Kew Bulletin, 1907, states that “the tubers were brought home from 
Hyéres in 1904 or 1905, and planted in a meadow. Each year some fe) 
them have developed vigorous spikes of flowers in February. So far as my’ 
experience in Sussex goes, our earliest Orchids, Orchis mascula and O. 
Morio, do not flower before April. That this Mediterranean Orchid should 
have preserved the power and habit of flowering so early in the season when 
transferred to a much colder climate is a biological fact of sufficient interest 
to be placed on record.” This plant is also known as Orchis longibracteata, 
but its separation from that genus is due to some slight differences in the 
structure of the pollinia. 
