Sad 
— 
L. The Orchid Review 4 
© 
VoL. XXIII. Marcu, 1915. No. 267. 
= ze Le . 
ees | ORCHID CULTURE AND EVOLUTION. Axel 
PAPER entitled “The Development of Orchid Cultivation and its 
bearing upon Evolutionary Theories,” by J. Constantin, appears in 
the Smithsonian Report for 1913 (pp- 345-358). The author remarks: 
“When crowds throng our horticultural exhibitions they are struck chiefly 
by the brilliant splendour of colour, the rich variety of forms, and the 
strange transformations produced in the vegetable kingdom by the art of 
the plant breeder; but they are often incapable of appreciating the true 
importance of all the wonders displayed before their gaze. 
“ What at once strikes anyone who examines the Orchids is the bizarre 
aspect of these plants—their slender forms, their thick, fleshy leaves, their 
aérial roots, their bulbous bases, all contrasting with the incomparable 
brilliance of the corollas. Everyone still feels something of the sensations, 
so well described by de Puydt, which were experienced by visitors to the 
Orchid houses long ago when these plants were beginning to be grown in 
numbers in Europe. ‘ You would enter the house full of Orchids with 
eager curiosity, as though it were some shrine where a tangible mystery 
was to be unfolded. The method of growth without soil, the aérial roots, 
the heavy atmosphere, the abnormal leaves, the strange aspect, would grip: 
you all at once, and if blossoms were open with their peculiar forms, fleshy 
petals, sombre colours, and penetrating perfumes, you stood overwhelmed 
at the display and at the patience of the gardener.’ 
“What used to cause so much astonishment at the method of growth 
of Orchids resulted from a peculiarity of these plants which was then little 
understood, namely, that they are children of the air, or, in other words, 
“epiphytes ’—in short, the curious plants which Linnzus included in his 
genus Epidendrum to indicate that they had the common characteristic of 
growing upon trees. The author then notes how the Portuguese 
Missionary, Loureiro, was strongly impressed by the habit of the growth 
of Aérides odoratum, which lived ‘ freely suspended in the air with neither 
food nor any base, either terrestrial or aquatic,’ and, again, how Loddiges 
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