THE-G@RGr ite fey ii Wy: 
Vor. VIIL.] JANUARY, 1900. (No. 85. 
EVENTS OF THE PAST YEAR. 
IT is usual at the commencement of a new year to pass in review the more 
important events of the one just past, and we will commence the present 
volume in conformity with the time-honoured custom. 
THE HYBRIDISATION CONFERENCE. 
The event of the season, par excellence, was the Hybridisation Conference 
convened at Chiswick by the Royal Horticultural Society, which, like the 
Quinquennial Show at Ghent in the preceding year, served to draw together 
many of the leading horticulturists of the world. The educational value of 
such international gatherings is often greater than is recognised at the time, 
and the opportunities they afford for the interchange of ideas and 
international courtesies have an enlightening influence, that can only make 
for progress. The immediate effects of this Conference can hardly yet be 
estimated, for we have only summaries of the various papers, but we have 
no doubt that the Official Report of the Conference, when it appears, will 
prove a highly interesting and valuable document. Our interest in the 
matter is necessarily limited to the subject to which these pages are 
devoted, but Orchidology we know will be well represented. 
ORCHIDS OF 1899. 
The present year has served to emphasise an opinion which has been 
gradually gaining ground for some time past, namely, that it is to the 
hybridist that we must chiefly look in future for that constant succession of 
novelties which serves to stimulate and increase our interest in this 
fascinating group of plants. Most countries of the world have been visited 
