40 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
Polypodium fibre, similarly treated. The whole should be placed ina jar 
or a tin, and placed in a slow oven. to bake for several hours. This 
process will kill any rhizomes and spores. On the following day it will be 
ready for use; cut up with a pair of sharp scissors, add a small quantity of 
fresh sphagnum heads, mix well up, and fill the pots in the usual way 
ready for use when they are wanted ; the process of filling the pots requires 
a certain amount of attention and skill, and the potting material should be 
pressed evenly and firmly. Orchid seedlings are very erratic in their way, 
and often appear in the least expected places. While conversing with 
Mr. Charles Winn he related his experience regarding his best seedling 
Cymbidium xX Winnianum, which he found growing underneath the trellis 
work of the staging. 
(To be continued). 
DIES ORCHIDIANZA. 
EXACTLy a year ago (page 36) I called attention to a series of special prizes 
offered by the Royal Horticultural Society for new plants of 1896. The 
competition was to extend throughout the year, and the judging was to be 
by points, which were to be duly kept and recorded, and the winners were 
to be announced at the end of the season. On looking through the Report 
of the Council for the year 1896-97, and the arrangements for the coming 
season, I fail to find any reference to the subject, and am a little curious to 
know the reason. Has the competition broken down? And if so, why? 
I note that 303 awards have been made during the year on the recom- 
mendatien of the Orchid Committee, including 85 medals of various kinds, 
but none of these appear to be the special ones above mentioned; and in 
any case the winners are not announced. There are also 36 First-class 
Certificates, 100 Awards of Merit, 47 Botanical Certificates, and 35 Cultural 
Commendations. 
The Council ‘‘ again express their opinion that there still appears to be 
a tendency to multiply unduly the awards recommended, and they earnestly 
request the several Committees to consider seriously whether there is not a 
real danger of impairing the value of these distinctions by such increase in 
their number ; and whether it would not be possible, as well as politic, to 
be somewhat less generous in the recommendation of awards during the 
ensuing year.” They also announce that “at the unanimous request of 
the Orchid Committee, and on certain Members of it undertaking to pay 4 
third of the expense, the Council have arranged to have paintings made of 
all the flowers Certificated by this Committee. . . . The Orchid Committee 
desire to have these paintings as an accurate record of ‘the characters and 
peculiarities of the plants to which awards are made, finding it practically 
