82 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [Apeits 19t7e 
and a curious instance of its habit of producing flowers for a long time in 
succession was recorded. A flower of the species was fertilised and the q 
capsule matured and the seed was sown. Meantime the scape continued : 
to flower, and the young seedlings were up before the last flower on the © 
scape had expanded. Probably C. Maudie (callosum Sandere X 
Lawrenceanum Hyeanum) was the most beautiful hybrid raised by Mr. 
Winn, though the seedlings did not germinate until after the colledtion was a 
sold. The source of some other hybrids may be traced to this collection. 
! - . a . faba : a 
Mr. Winn also crossed Cattleya Dowiana aurea with C. W ; 2 = 
order to prove the parentage of the handsome C. Hardyana, in which he 
was successful, though before the seedlings flowered it had also been raised 3 
in other collections. Failing health and inability to give the collection the — 
same attention as formerly was the cause of its dispersal. Afterwards Mr. 
Winn found recreation in his garden, and also took up the cultivation of , 
Show and Alpine Auriculas, which he exhibited at the meetings of the ‘ 
Midland Auricula & Primula Society at the Edgbaston Botanical Gardens. 
THE CENTENARY OF THE ORCHID BaskeT.—It may be interesting ss! 7 
recall that the present year is the Centenary of the basket method of Orchid 4 
culture—at all events the following, which appeared in the Botanical 
Register in 1817 (t. 220), is the earliest note on the subject that we 
know of :— 
“The most successful mode of treating plants of this nature in these 
climates has been devised by Sir Joseph Banks, to whom we are obliged for 
the opportunity of representing the present specimen, which flowered in the 
hothouse of his garden at Smallberry Green, and had been invented by 
himself. The method he pursues is to place the plants separately in light 
cylindrical wicker baskets or cages, of suitable widths, of which the frame- 
work is of long slender twigs wattled together at the bottom and shallowly 
round at the side; the upper portion being left open that the plant may 
extend its growth in any direction through the intervals, and yet be kept 
Steady in its station, the ends of the twigs having been tied together by the 
twine that suspends the whole to the woodwork of the stove. A thin layer 
of mould is strewed on the floor of the basket on which the rootstock is 
placed, and then covered lightly over with a sufficiency of moss to shade it 
and preserve a due degree of moisture, water being occasionally supplied.” 
The subject is Aérides paniculatum, Ker, now known as Sarcanthus 
paniculatus, Lindl., a native of China. The Orchid basket has since been 
considerably modified, particularly in the way of using more durable 
materials for the framework, and in substituting wire for the twigs. used to 
suspend the basket, but the principal is the same. It is also the earliest 
record of moss being used for surfacing that we know of. 
