THE: ORCHID REVIEW. . 331 
THE HISTORY OF ORCHID CULTIVATION. 
Continued from vol. it., page 136. 
Our preceding papers traced the history of Orchid cultivation from 1732; 
when Bletia verecunda flowered in the garden of a Mr. Wager, down to 
1825, when we find a collection of about 180 tropical kinds cultivated in 
the Horticultural Society’s garden at Chiswick. 
In the latter year, also, Messrs. Loddiges had in their stoves at Hackney, 
eighty-four species belonging to about thirty genera. The compost used, 
we read, was a mixture of wood and moss, with a small quantity of sand ; 
and the Orchid stove was heated by brick flues to as high a temperature as 
could be obtained by this means, with the help of a tan bed in the middle, 
kept moist by watering, and from which a steamy evaporation constantly 
arose, without any ventilation. 
Such a method of treatment was then generally followed, but about 
this time, according to Mr. John Smith, a change was made in the Royal 
Gardens, Kew. A portion at the end of the propagating house was set 
aside, and a bed was formed consisting of loose turfy soil, interspersed 
with small portions of tree stems, on which the Orchids were placed. For 
a time many of them are said to have grown freely, but the net result was 
that they only lived ona little longer than they had previously done. Short- 
ly afterwards species were sent to Kew by Mr. Lockhart, Curator of the 
Botanic Garden, Trinidad, some of the plants being attached to portions of 
branches as cut from the trees. Instructions as to how they should be 
treated were also sent, and this eventually led tosome improvement in their 
culture generally. 
Two notable plants not previously mentioned which flowered for the 
first time in 1825 were figured in Hooker’s Exotic Flora. Catasetum 
tridentatum (t. go, gt) was sent from Trinidad by Baron de Schack, and 
flowered in the Botanical Garden at Liverpool. The explosive character of 
the anther in this genus seems now to have been noticed for the first time, 
for the author remarked :—‘ Mr. Henry Shepherd informs me that ‘on 
touching the extremity of the column with a-pin, the anther case flies off. 
with an elastic force, and takes along with it the pollen mass, the gland at 
the base of which is covered with a glutinous substance, by which it 
adheres to anything that it comes in contact with.’” The species was 
afterwards identified with C. macrocarpum. Dendrobium Harrisoniz 
(t. 120), now known as Bifrenaria Harrisoniz, was figured from a drawing 
made by Mrs. Arnold Harrison, of Aigburth, Liverpool, in whose collection 
it flowered. The author remarked :—‘‘ Mrs. Harrison received it two years 
ago from her brother at Rio de Janeiro; and the species appearing ere 
entirely new, I cannot do better than honour it with the name of an indi- 
