CHE ORCHID REVIEW. 



NOTICE OF BOOK. 



The Woodlands Orchids, described and illustrated, isith stories of Orchid- 

 collecting. By Frederick Boyle. Coloured plates by J. L. Macfarlane, 

 F.R.H.S. London, Macmillan & Co., pp. 274, with 16 coloured plates. 



A book about Orchids by Mr. Boyle is sure to be interesting, whether it 

 deals with some celebrated collection or with the stories that are connected 

 with the introduction of the plants it contains, and in the volume now 

 before us the two are combined. It is not easy to say which occupies the 

 more prominent position, but we may accept the title of the book as 

 sufficiently descriptive of its contents. 



The Woodlands Orchids, it is hardly necessary to explain, are located at 

 Streatham, and the author commences with an account of "how the collec- 

 tion was formed." It appears that after fifteen years of very hard work 

 Mr. Measures' health broke down, and the doctor, after various futile 

 attempts to induce his patient to take a long rest, advised him to " take a 

 house in the suburbs, with a large garden ; cultivate some special variety of 

 plant ; and study it." But the special variety to be selected presented a diffi- 

 culty, until a mere chance put the patient on the right track. He attended 

 a local sale, and presently some pots of Cypripedium barbatum were put up 

 in bud and flower. They seemed curious and pretty, and he bought them. 

 Three days after he saw a plant of Dendrobium thyrsiflorum in flower, and 

 carried it home in a whirl of astonishment and delight. And now having 

 seen the collection fairly launched, we pass on, briefly noting that it now 

 occupies thirty-one houses, and is under the charge of Mr. J. Coles, with 

 thirteen assistants regularly employed. 



We pass on to the Cattleya House— or houses, for there are seven 

 compartments, having an aggregate length of 187 feet. Here we are told 

 that the collection of " Lselia elegans" is the finest in existence, comprising 

 about 1,200 plants, and, after a general discussion of its history and 

 assumed origin, a list of sixty-one varieties, with short descriptions. In 

 perusing it we are impressed with the truth of the author's remark that 

 " elegans is merely a title of convenience, with no scientific value." He 

 observes that Mr. Rolfe has satisfied himself that by the alliance of Ltelia 

 purpurata with Cattleya Leopoldi the dark forms were produced, and bv 

 alliance with C. intermedia, the white. But no attempt is made to separate 

 them—in fact the arrangement is neither alphabetical nor systematic, but 

 one intended "to display by contrast the striking diversities which an 

 Orchid may assume." This possibly explains why twenty-one other 

 " varieties" are sandwiched between Schilleriana and S. splendens, but why 

 one of these should be a hybrid between Cattleya Leopoldi and C. bicolor 

 we cannot imagine. We have also a " Macfarlanei ', and " Macfarlanei II " 



