176 THE ORCHID REVIEW. ([JuLy, 1916 
album, which, with the type, has been established on a western aspect, has 
borne several blooms, which Mr. Elwes has described as the choicest thing 
on the whole rockery. 
On the remarkable Rockery of Sir Frank Crisp, Bart., Friar Park, 
Henley, we saw a strong clump of Orchis maculata alba, about two feet 
high, bearing five long spikes-of pure white flowers. There were also 
examples of the type, of O. latifolia, Gymnadenia conopsea, and, what was 
particularly interesting, a little clump of six Cypripedium japonicum 
established at the foot of a large piece of stone. How long it has been 
there we cannot say, and it was not in bloom, but it is well known as a 
difficult subject to cultivate, and we should like to hear if any of our 
readers have been successful with it, and under what conditions. 
Hardy terrestrial Orchids, writes Mr. H. J. Elwes in ‘‘ Notes from a 
Cotswold Garden ” (Gard. Chron., 1916, i. p. 329), are usually supposed to 
be difficult to grow, and still more so to keep, but if people would give them 
a little of the care and skill that they give to hot-house Orchids we should 
soon find out the secrets of their life history. I have managed to keep alive 
for sixteen years and to flower several times one of the rarest and prettiest 
of the Cypripediums, namely, C. guttatum, which I found in the pathless 
forests of the Altai mountains in 1899; and last year I had some lovely 
varieties of C. ventriocosum, which is much more vigorous and striking. 
But at present I do not know how to treat them, or where to plant them, 
and it seems very much a matter of chance whether most of these 
Cypripediums live or die. I have got a fine form of C. Calceolus which I 
brought from Arctic Norway in 1905 still flourishing, though experience of 
other plants from so far north led me to expect exactly the contrary. But 
this is just what makes hardy Orchid so interesting ; one never knows what 
to expect. Who would believe until they saw it, as I did at Scampston Hall 
recently, that the Shetland Orchid, Orchis incarnata, which also thrives: 
admirably at Colesborne, would grow side by side and in similar conditions 
with O. foliosa from Maderia, Aceras hircina from Switzerland, and some of 
the Algerian Ophrys, which Mr. St. Quintin finds hardier than the same 
species collected on the Riviera 500 miles further north? This gentleman 
is probably the most skilful grower of these plants in England, and if he 
will give us the benefit of his experience in print he will confer a great 
benefit on others. 
ee 
THE Orcuips oF ITALY is the title of an interesting article by Mr. W- 
Herbert Cox, which recently appeared in The Garden (1916, i. p. 240), 
illustrated by figures of Serapias Lingua and Epipactis latifolia. The 
author mentions having found as many as thirty-eight varieties among the 
hills round Florence. 
