FrBRuARY, 1917.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 37 
ees | ORCHIDS FIFTY YEARS AGO. | Ars 
HE suggestion of an old correspondent that a few notes on Orchid 
culture and sales in the past would be interesting, prompted us to look 
at the Gardeners’ Chronicle of fifty years ago, and we find that an important 
series of articles, entitled ‘‘ Orchids and their Cultivation,’ was being 
contributed by Mr. James Anderson, one of the foremost growers of the 
day, after whom Odontoglossum Andersonianum was named. The date 
was 1867, and a review of the Orchids of the preceding year (1866) informs 
us that ‘‘the star’ of the Orchids seems to be once more in the ascendant, 
and in their ranks would be found by far the largest number of the new 
plants of the past season. Orchids were no longer, as of yore, confined to 
the wealthy, but—thanks to cool treatment—were now placed within reach 
of anyone who could spare the funds for a greenhouse of the most modest 
proportions. In no former year did so many really first-class Orchids ‘‘ come 
out.” Of those most familiar to us at the present day we find Cattleya 
Dowiana, Odontoglossum Hallii, Oncidium Marshallianum,and Dendrobium 
thyrsiflorum, but there were also D. Maccarthiz, Saccolabium giganteum, 
Vanda Bensonii, Epidendrum Cooperi, and Mesospinidium sanguineum 
(now Cochlioda). It is significant that not a single hybrid is mentioned, 
but the number of seedlings then in existence was very small. 
A discussion was als» going on about Oacidium macranthum, which 
had long been known from dried specimens, and now plants had been 
introduced which, it was hoped, would prove authentic, and respecting 
which Messrs. Backhouse remarked: Patience will not (apparently) have 
to be severely strained in regard to the plant we have imported as Oncidium 
macranthum, as one of these already shows a flower stem. 
Cool Orchids were then coming to the front. In the said review it is 
mentioned of Odontoglossum Alexandre that though, strictly speaking, it 
belonged to 1865, still, we could never have formed any idea of its real 
beauty until we had seen the specimens that Mr. Pattison and Mr. 
Anderson sent during the past season from ‘ayant the Tweed.’ This 
species was giving trouble to cultivators, and one of them complained that 
instead of going to rest ‘‘the plant starts a fresh growth, in most instances. 
smaller and weaker than the first growth.” To this Mr. Anderson replied :— 
‘‘Singularly enough, Odontoglossums, as a rule, have never been 
well grown. True, they were only introduced into this country in limited 
quantity at first, and the very few that survived the ordeal of a tedious and 
difficult transit, in a burning heat, to the port of embarkation, were 
prescribed for and managed with the greatest anxiety certainly, but upon a 
