JaNnvuaRY, 1918.] THE ORCHID REVIEW 21 
A Silver Medal was awarded to A. Hanmer, Esq., Chester (gr. Mr. E. 
Palin), for a group of select Cypripediums, including C. bingleyense, Sir 
Redvers Buller, Dreadnought, King George V., Oberon, Queen Alexandra, 
and various others. 
A Silver Medal was also awarded to Messrs. Cypher & Sons, Cheltenham, 
for a fine group, consisting chiefly of choice Cypripediums, with examples 
of Cattleya Fabia, Zena, excelsa, and others. 
Interesting exhibits were staged by S. Gratrix, Esq., Whalley Range 
(gr. Mr. J. Howes); The Hon. Robert James, Richmond, Yorks. (gr. Mr. J. 
Benstead); Col. Sir J. Rutherford, Bart., M.P., Blackburn (gr. Mr. J. 
Lupton); John Hartley, Esq., Morley (gr. Mr. Coupe); the Exors. of the 
late O. O. Wrigley, Esq., Bury (gr. Mr. E. Rogers); Messrs. Sanders, St. 
Albans; Messrs. Charlesworth & Co., Haywards Heath; Messrs. J, & A. 
McBean, Cooksbridge, and Messrs. Keeling & Sons, Bradford, several of 
which are included in the above list of Awards. 
eit rats 
T has been suggested that a series of articles, extending throughout the 
year, on such a representative collection of Orchids as that at Kew 
would be a feature of exceptional interest. We are willing to make the 
attempt, and will preface our notes with a few historical details, -for the 
Kew collection is probably the oldest in existence, and can be traced back 
for a period of over 130 years. 
In 1789 the first edition of Aiton’s Hortus Kewensis appeared, and it 
contained a full-sized plate of Limodorum Tankervillee (now known as 
Phaius grandifolius), a species imported by Fothergill from China in the 
previous year. Three other tropical species are mentioned as being in 
cultivation at Kew, namely, Bletia verecunda, Epidendrum fragrans, and 
E. cochleatum, the two latter having flowered for the first time in the 
collection in 1782 and 178g respectively. A few others, including six from 
North America, one from the Cape, and two from South Europe, made up a 
total of fifteen exotic species. 
By the time the second edition of the Hortus Kewensis appeared, twenty- 
four years later, the number of exotic species, according to John Smith’s 
Records of Kew, had increased to 84, the greater number epiphytal, and 
natives of the West Indies, a few of the East Indies, Cape of Good 
Hope, and New South Wales. A number of species were sent from India 
in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, among them being the first 
Aérides, the first Dendrobium, and the first Vanda. John Smith has 
recorded how, in 1822, he found the Indian species growing on a shelf above 
NOTES FROM KEW.—I. 
