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r Che Orchid Review Si 
0°. VoL. XXVIII. May-JUNE, 1919. No. 317-318. 
| St | ORCHID CULTURE IN PANAMA. | xe 
SERIES of four interesting photographs has been sent by Mr. C. W. 
Powell, Panama, representing views in his Orchid Collection at Balboa, 
in the Canal Zone. An account of the collection has already been given 
(O.R., xxvi. pp. 179-181); and these views enable one to realise better the 
conditions of Orchid culture in the tropics, where one can dispense with 
glass and artificial heat. The place might be described as a large, open 
shed, supported by pillars, and with a light canvas covering to protect the 
plants from the burning rays of the sun. Some of the plants are grown in 
pots on a stage, but the majority are in baskets or on wood blocks, and 
suspended from the supports and roof of the house, while strong plants of 
Vanilla climb up some of the supports. We note a good plant of a white. 
Trichopilia in bloom, and many of the details can be made out with the aid 
of a lens, but the scale is such that they would be lost in a_half-tone 
illustration. “At the same time Mr: Powell sends a good photograph of the 
beautiful Trichopilia suavis, and another of a Warscewiczella, and we have 
others, accompanied by good dried specimens on which we hope to report 
at the earliest opportunity. 
Respecting Panama as a possible centre of Orchid culture, Mr. Powell 
_ remarks: ‘‘ Why does not one of the big Orchid firms establish propagating 
gardens on the Isthmus? Here is the neck of the hour-glass of shipping 
routes, all Mexican, Central and South American travel or commerce passes 
through the Canal, going back or forth. This would make it easy for the 
gathering together here of the plants of all America, and as Japan is running 
a regular line here, those of the Orient also. The gardens so established 
could thus supply the home firms with a constant supply of plants, shipped. 
at just the proper time and under the proper conditions to reach London in. 
good condition. The question of hybridising would be exceedingly simple, 
as all the natural conditions of growth are here, and plants would be 
plentiful to experiment with. Besides, there are thousands of ferns, 
lilies, and other tropical flowering plants of great beauty which could 
be handled. : 
