Serr.-OcT., 1918. | THE ORCHID REVIEW. 207° 
is important to keep the best varieties as far as possible in good health. 
To prevent deterioration from this cause, it is advisable to remove the 
flower spikes from weakly plants as soon as they are observed, and on the 
_ strongest plants as soon as all the flowers are open. So far this genus of 
Orchids has not been much touched by our hybridists, and until greater 
results are achieved we must depend on the imported species. 
GENERAL RemMARKS.—Every effort must be made to place our plants 
comfortably in their winter quarters, and to eradicate the insect and other 
pests which trouble us at all seasons. Matters that appear trivial may 
make the greatest success, hence the necessity of looking carefully into 
the smallest details. It is obvious that the welfare of our plants depends 
entirely upon the conditions provided for them, and at the present time we 
are all undoubtedly working under the greatest difficulties, both as regards 
labour and materials. But we must watch for the silver lining of the cloud 
which still hangs over us, and which we all hope may soon pass away, and 
enable us again to enjoy to the full the cultivation of these plants in which 
Weare all so deeply interested. 
e| ORCHIS MASCULA AND O. MORIO. | 
July issue of the Journal of Botany contains (pp. 193-197) some 
y “Notes on Orchis mascula and O. Morio,” by Col. M. J. Godfery, 
F.L.S., who in May last made an expedition from Corfe Castle, Dorset, to 
é locality where the two species grow together, mainly in the hope of 
nding hybrids between them. In this he was not successful, but he made 
some other interesting observations. 
: The locality was a large field, carpeted with thousands of cowslips, and 
with two large colonies of O. mascula, which the country people there call 
“Regals,” and as they were magnificent in all the glory of full bloom, it is 
added that they well deserved the name. O. Morio was also abundant, but 
Mostly grew in other parts of the field, though a few scattered plants were 
intermixed with ©. mascula. Col. Godfery calls attention to the 
observations of Sprengel that the spurs of these and some other Orchids 
Contain no free honey, hence he designated them ‘false nectaries,’ and 
thought that these plants existed by an organised system of deception. 
atwin did not believe in this, considering that the intelligence of bees was 
of too high an order to allow of their repeated deception by such an artifice, 
and he pointed out that the spur consists of two layers, and concluded that 
Ney was secreted between the inner and outer membranes, and that it 
Was obtained by the insects by puncturing the inner layer. Deipino also 
Made observations on the subject, and remarked that the fluid found 
