238 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [AucusT, 1914. 
Recess OBITUARY. Aaa 
HE RIGHT HON. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.—A dis. 
tinguished Orchidist passed away at his London residence, 40, 
Prince’s Gardens, on Thursday, July 2nd, in the person of the Right 
Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., within six days of completing his 78th 
year. To the public Mr. Chamberlain was best known as a strenuous 
politician, and his public career and distinguished service to the State and 
to his native town of Birmingham have been dealt with very fully in the 
columns of the press. But even here his love of Orchids has been 
prominently alluded to. For many years, we have been told, Mr. 
Chamberlain was never seen in public without an Orchid in his buttonhole, 
grown in his own Orchid house at Highbury, Moor Green, Birmingham, 
and when in London two buttonholes were sent up for his use every day. 
This habit of Mr. Chamberlain was one of the joys of the cartoonist, and 
although some of his creations would scarcely stand the scrutiny of @ 
Reichenbach, they have doubtless helped to popularise a flower with which 
Mr. Chamberlain's name will always be inseparably connected. 
Mr. Chamberlain was a great lover of Orchids, and his collection at 
Highbury, Birmingham, was long one of the most famous in the Midlands. 
As early as 1881 Reichenbach alluded to him as a great amateur of Orchids, 
and named the handsome Cattleya Chamberlainiana, a hybrid between 
C. Leopoldii and C. Dowiana, in his honour. An account of the Highbury 
collection was given at pp. 107-110 of our first volume, when it was 
remarked that thirteen houses were devoted to Orchids, these, with some 
others, and a lofty conservatory, being connected by a Corridor, and the 
whole so arranged that any of them could be visited without going into the 
open air, and the principal ones fitted with electric light. (Illustrations were 
also given in our third volume of the Cattleya House at Highbury (p- 233» 
fig. 9), and the Show Houseat Highbury (p. 241, fig. 10), anda later account 
of the collection will be found at pp. 331-333 of our sixth volume). 
Mr. Chamberlain was a collector of choice varieties of the more gt 
species, and had an intimate knowledge of the history of individu 
specimens and of the details of their culture. Cattleyas and Lalias, 
Dendrobiums, Odontoglossums, Phalznopses, and Masdevallias were among 
his favourites, and the two latter had houses to themselves, and were i 
thriving condition. Cypripediums, however, found little favour, and only \g 
few of the brighter species were grown. As hybrids increased in popularity 
a good many interesting things were added and some raised in the ner 
among those which we recall being Masdevallia Shuttryana vat. ei ee 
lainii, Leeliocattleya highburiensis, and Dendrobium Andromeda 19 1890 
