THE ORCHID REVIEW. c 8 3 . 



Parishii Marriottiana, and Mrs. Ross believes that the first plant sold in 

 England came from his collection. The collection grew rapidly, and at 

 length filled five large houses, while the remarkable health and vigour of 

 the plants, no doubt partly owing to the favourable climate, has struck 

 several of our English Orchidists who have seen it. 



The collection was formerly located at Castagnolo, Lastra a Signa, 

 between Florence and Pisa, but about the beginning of 1889 Mr. Ross 

 purchased thp old Castello di Poggio Gherardo, which stands on a 

 projecting spur of the lower ranges of the Fiesole Hills, some two miles 

 east of Florence, to which the Orchids were then transferred. The 

 collection was then computed to contain nearly a thousand species, and to 

 be the finest ever got together in Italy, not excepting the celebrated one of 

 Prince Demidoff, at San Donato, near Florence, which was dispersed in 

 1878. Some years ago a catalogue of the collection was published. 



For some years Mr. Ross was a regular correspondent of Reichen- 

 bach's, and in 1882 Aerides expansum Leonise flowered in the collection, 

 being dedicated by request to Leonie, wife of Mr. Louie Allan Goss, who 

 discovered the plant in the creeks of Arracan, and sent it to Mr. Ross in 

 the previous year. Dendrobium Dalhousianum Rossianum was also 

 described about the same time, being dedicated to Mr. Ross, while 

 Coelogyne Rossiana and Peristeria Rossiana were subsequently added by 

 the same author. In 1889 a Cycnoches in the collection produced both 

 male and female flowers on the same pseudobulb, and was afterwards 

 described under the name of C. Rossianum (Rolfe in Gard. Chron., 1891, ix., 

 p. 456). The male raceme is pendulous, some two feet or more long, and 

 the flowers were once compared by Mr. Ross to " a lot of monkeys 

 running up a rope, there being the head, the body, and the upturned tail"? 

 and when viewed in a certain direction the resemblance is obvious 

 enough. Two other Orchids which have been named after Mr. Ross are 

 Lycaste Rossiana, a Mexican species, and Paphiopedilum X Rossianum, a 

 hybrid between P. tonsum and P. barbatum. Mention of the latter 

 reminds us that Mr. Ross has paid some attention to hybridising, and we 

 learn that there are several hundred seedlings in the collection, which will 

 flower in the next few years. 



Mr. Ross has been a frequent correspondent and constant supporter of 

 the Review since the commencement, and it is interesting to recall his 

 notes on the culture of Bolleas, Pescatoreas, and allied plants, 

 at page 14 of our last volume. And we may recall the beautiful 

 Paphiopedilum X Venetia, figured at page 241, which possesses a 

 melancholy interest as the last plant received from Mr. Ross, and 1 



> the reproductic 



Ross, to whom 



tender our sincere sympathy, is also an ardent admirer of Orchids, and has 



