98 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [APRIL, 1923: 
without artificial heat. No doubt we shall in time have them increasing 
freely from seed, as in their native habitats. Moreover, great results may 
be looked for in tropical countries by hybridising the different species, and 
sowing the seeds in places where they may thrive without the aid of man. 
It takes some years to get seedlings into flowering plants, but the time will 
be repaid if a careful selection of parents is made, for after the seeds are 
ripe they will sow themselves, and be carried by the wind into various 
congenial places. The insects will also do their work by carrying the 
pollen to the flowers of other species. When seeds scatter themselves 
about naturally, we cannot but think that good results must follow. It 
would be a most interesting pursuit for those who have estates in tropical 
countries ‘to import Orchids from different parts of the world, for they 
would thus be enabled to encourage their growth and in time might turn 
them to good account, especially if new species and varieties are forth- 
coming.—B. S. Williams, in Orchid Album, 1886. 
ORCHIS PRAETERMISSA. 
N interesting article by the Rev. T Stephenson, D.D., and Mr. T. A. 
A Stephenson, M. Sc., on Orchis pretermissa, Druce, is contained in the 
Journal of Botany for March, 1923 (vol. Ixi., pp. 65-68). The claim of this 
plant to a distinct status has been contested, especially by the late Mr. 
Rolfe, who held (Orchid Review, 1920, 165) that O. latifolia is probably a 
species with unspotted leaves, seeing that Reichenbach had already separated 
(as O. majalis) the spotted forms from the latifolia aggregate. Messrs. 
Stephenson, however, cannot agree with this contention ; for in all continental 
floras seen by them, O. latifolia is still described as a plant with leaves 
usually spotted, and no large group of unspotted forms is separated, as far 
as their memory serves. They consider that “O. pretermissa is a 
thoroughly well-marked and distinct species, whose segregation has helped 
materially to clear up the puzzling problems connected with the Marsh 
Orchids.” 
A good photographic reproduction of two of the many types of O. 
pretermissa is given, as well as enlarged flowers of a common form of the 
type, and of one near to, if not precisely like, var. macrantha. The authors 
only describe the forms sufficiently to distinguish them from their nearest 
neighbours, and especially from O. incarnata. The plants prefer damp 
situations, though they are said to be not so often found in standing water 
as O. incarnata. O. pretermissa is distributed over the whole area of 
England and Wales, wherever the ground is suitable, but occurs much more 
sparsely in Scotland, where it is occasionally found. This article forms a | 
valuable addition to our knowledge of British Orchids. 
