AUGUST, 1915.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 231 
ces | ORCHID EXHIBITS FIFTY YEARS AGO. Z| 
HE reports of some of the early meetings of the R.H.S. stand in the 
- greatest contrast with those of to-day, and an account of a “‘ Scientific 
Meeting,” held on June 18th, 1867, will be read with interest. The 
occasion was a lecture by Mr. James Bateman, with Sir R. Murchison in 
the Chair, and was preceded by some remarks on the plants exhibited, 
which was then one of the features of the meetings—short ‘‘ lecturets’’ they 
have been called, in which,Mr. Bateman succeeded in conveying ‘‘a great 
deal of valuable and interesting information in a pleasant gossiping style.” 
The report is taken from the Gardeners’ Chromicle. 
Mr. Bateman said. that though all knew the splendid specimens of 
Orchids which Mr. Anderson, Mr. Dawson’s gardener at Meadow Bank, 
was in the habit of exhibiting from time to time, yet he had never seen 
finer than those which he exhibited on this occasion. Beautiful as his 
bunch of Odontoglossum Pescatorei was, it only represented a fraction of 
the blossom on the plant from which it was cut, and on which no less than 
300 flowers were counted. But glorious as Mr. Anderson’s Odontoglossum 
was, even it was surpassed by the cut specimen of Aérides Fieldingii from 
Lord Egerton of Tatton, which was the most magnificent example of that 
species which had ever been exhibited, and to which, on the recommenda- 
tion of the Floral Committee, the Lindley medal had been awarded. Mr. 
Bateman then noticed two or three small species of Orchids, and especially 
the little carmine-coloured Odontoglossum roseum, which, though beautiful 
in minimis, as now exhibited for the first time, would present a still more 
striking appearance when larger specimens were obtained. Miltonia. 
spectabilis, of which his own gardener had sent a fine variety, called rosea, 
was mentioned, as having been obtained from Brazil by Messrs. Low; 
likewise the Mexican Epidendrum vitellinum, from Mr. Anderson, which 
was figured twenty-five years ago by Dr. Lindley, from dried specimens ; 
but when the plant was flowered seven years later by Mr. Barker, everyone 
considered the drawing exaggerated, so poor were the blossoms then. 
Now, however, that the cultivation of the plant—which comes from an 
elevation of 7,000 to 8,000 feet—is conducted on the cool, that is the 
sensible, mode of treatment, the original representation was seen to fail in 
doing justice to its beauty. Beautiful, however, as Mr. Anderson’s example 
of this Epidendrum was, Mr. Bateman said he had seen one far superior a 
day or two before at Mr. Day’s at Tottenham. Dendrobium Bensonize 
from Messrs. Veitch was a very promising addition to that beautiful genus. 
Coming now to the immediate object of his lecture, Lelia majalis, 
or Flore de Maio, it was, he said, one of the few Orchids that was fortunate 
