336 THE ORCHty REVIEW. 



was of the beautiful group of plants which formed his principal hobby. 

 And we may supplement our notice by the following note from its pages : — 

 " In 1857 Mr. Ross became a partner i n the house of Briggs & Co., in 

 Alexandria, and three years later he mailed Janet, the eldest daughter of 

 Sir Alexander Cornewall Duff Gordon. They remained in Egypt until 

 1869, and then settled in Italy, where M r . Ross was at last able to indulge 

 his passion for flowers, and became knovyn as an enthusiastic cultivator of 

 Orchids." His niece, Miss Lina Duff Gordon, contributes a brief sketch of 

 her uncle as she knew him during the last ten years of his life, in which she 

 remarks : — " My uncle dedicated himself to the cultivation of Orchids with 

 the same enthusiasm he brought to bear on anything he undertook. Hours 

 were spent every day with his Tuscan gardeners repotting and examining 

 the precious plants, and watching eagerly for a sign of colour in the buds of 

 a new prize among the flowers. To be t«iken through the Orchid house by 

 him was to realise to the full the pleasures of gardening." The volume 

 contains three portraits of Mr. Ross, take n at different periods. 



OVERHEARD AT THB; DRILL HALL. 



Botanicus. " Here, you of the Orchid Committee. Why did you alter 



that name ? Brassocattleya was correct." 



Orchid Committeeman. " We call them all Leelio-cattleya." 



B. "But it's wrong for all that: Brassavola Digbyana is not a 



O. C " The Genera Plantarum says it is." 



B. " The Genera Plantarum says Mohmodes luxatum is a Catasetum, 

 but that doesn't make it one. Brassavola Digbyana has the long-beaked 

 ovary of Brassavola : Laelia has no beak &t all. Lindley named the plant 

 correctly in the first place, and why not follow him ?" 



O. C. " All our records are under L^lio-cattleya, and we must stick 

 to them. We can't be sometimes right ar\d sometimes wrong. Better be 

 consistent, if it's always wrong." 



B. " But why not alter your records, and be always right. It's no 

 good clearing up mistakes if you persistently ignore them." 



O. C. "That's just the point: Don't find them out. It's no good: 

 you'll never get the name adopted, so you'd better drop it and done 



Man in the Hall. " You see, their laws are the laws of the Medes 

 and Persians." But he mentally noted that the name Brassocattleya had 

 actually been adopted by the exhibitor before it was deliberately cancelled, 

 and he left pondering. 



