29 o THE ORCHID REVIEW. 



records of some of them, as in the case of Mr. Brooman White's remarkable 

 Cattleya Mendelii, to which I alluded last month. I would commend 

 this idea to some of our successful growers. 



It has been remarked that such specimens are less frequent than they 

 were some years ago, and one of the chief causes I have indicated above. 

 They are too big, and take up too much room. It is not a question of the 

 decline of cultural skill, but rather that " elephants," as they have been 

 termed, have gone out of fashion. There are so many really fine Orchids in 

 cultivation that one cannot include everything, except in a very large 

 collection, let alone grow them on into specimens; hence it is that many 

 modern collections are largely made up of comparatively small plants, 

 which flower freely within a rather limited space. But the majority of 

 Orchids are more effective when grown on into well balanced specimens, 

 and when this can be done without taking up too much space it represents 

 an ideal condition of things, as is admitted by some of those who make little 

 attempt to carry it into practice. Apart from the pleasing sensation called 

 forth by such fine examples of good culture, there is the enhanced effect 

 produced by masses of similar flowers seen from various positions at the 



Some similar effects are often produced by grouping, when two or 

 three plants of the same kind are flowering together, the combined effect 

 being often far superior to that of scattering the plants among a number of 

 other diverse kinds. And we have seen very beautiful examples of what 

 may be termed imitation specimens, produced by temporarily placing three 

 flowering plants of the same kind in a large deep pan, and then filling the 

 interstices, and surfacing with moss. Some people might object to such 

 deception, but if done only for the sake of enhanced effect, and not used for 

 any other purpose, there should be no objection to the practice. 



Speaking of considerations of space, in connection with the production of 

 specimen plants, leads me to remark that there are many Orchids of 

 moderate size which take up very little room, even when grown on into 

 " specimens." Such plants as Sophronitis grandiflora, Lselia pumila and 

 Dayana, Odontoglossum Rossii and Cervantesii, and a number of those 

 little gems often termed " Botanical Orchids," seldom give trouble in this 

 direction, and it is only when grown in masses that some of them can be 

 termed really effective. Fortunately there are numbers of such plants, and 

 I believe that this is one of the reasons why Orchids have become so popular. 

 Their quaint shapes, beautiful colours and markings, and the possibility of 

 having a succession of bloom throughout the year, are all great points in 



