THE ORCHID REVIEW. 109 



elatum and Epidendrum aloifolium in the collection of Mr. Harris, at 

 Kingsbury. We have no idea what the former can be, but it is noted that 

 " the flowers are very handsome, the sepals and petals being of a yellowish 

 green, richly blotched with brown, and the lip of a delicate light pink 



Under the heading of " Orchidaceous Epiphytes," we find a series of 

 three very interesting articles by Jas. Bateman, Knypersley. The author 

 remarks : — " The following table has been compiled from a note-book, in 

 which I have been in the habit of entering the names and characters of 

 what appeared to be first-rate Orchidacese (I use the phrase in its popular 

 sense), as they successively showed themselves in the collections of this 

 country. Embracing, as these entries do, a period of ten years, they may. 

 perhaps, possess a sort of historical interest in the eyes of the veteran 

 cultivator, while to the mere novice they will serve as landmarks in the 

 formation of a collection." The list refers to the period subsequent to 1831 

 only, in which the writer began his collection. It includes 147 species, 

 of which 99 came from the new world (44 being Central American), and 

 only 43 from the old. Taking the collections individually in which the 

 species appeared, that of Messrs. Loddiges came first, with 31 species, the 

 writer's own second, with 17, and Mr. Barker's third, with 10. "The 

 number of collectors," it is remarked, " would seem to have increased as 

 rapidly as the number of species in cultivation ; in 1830 there were not 

 more than five or six collections of the slightest note, and in these were 

 barely 100 species; the collections cannot now be counted, nor the species 

 in their possession, but the latter may be estimated at 1,000 at the least. 

 It might be mentioned as a curious fact that the genera now in cultivation 

 are more numerous than were the species of ten years back ; nay, the genus 

 Epidendrum alone now musters a greater array of species than were 

 contained, at the period to which I refer, by all the other genera combined. 

 As such a multitude of species, of course, comprehends many that are 

 worthless, so it must necessarily lead to a selection of the best, for in a 

 majority of cases the space devoted to Orchidacese would be quite 

 inadequate to the accommodation of so large a family as the order has 

 latterly become." 



It may be interesting to summarise the Gardeners' Chronicle report of a 

 meeting of the Horticultural Society held at the Society's Garden, at 

 Chiswick, on June 12th, 1841— there were two others, on May 15th and 

 July 10th. After speaking of other plants, the report proceeds : — " It now 

 becomes necessary to say that, if judgment were to be pronounced without 

 the exclusion of any plants because they are scare or expensive, the 

 Orchidacese, so largely contributed to the exhibition, totally eclipsed every 

 other class. Indeed the collection of this enchanting race was all that 



