t2 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
ORCHIDS ABROAD AND AT HOME. 
Notes of a Lecture delivered before the members of the Kew Gardeners’ Mutual 
Improvement Society on December 7th, 1896, by Mr. R. A. Rolfe. 
THE Natural Order Orchidee is the largest among Monocotyledons, at 
least five thousand species being now known. It is also very widely diffused 
over the globe, being represented in nearly all climates but the coldest and 
driest. They are most abundant in tropical America, especially in the 
mountains, and in the great Indian region. The Flora of British India 
includes 1300 species, and an equal area in some parts of tropical America 
would produce still more. They are rarer in continental Africa, where 
from six to seven hundred species are found within the tropics. As many 
as twenty-two species extend within the Arctic circle, but thirteen of these 
only reach so far north in Europe where the ameliorating effect of the Gulf 
Stream is felt. The terrestrial species are found over the whole area of the 
Order, and in temperate regions are very numerous in Europe, Australia, 
and South Africa. Within the tropics they abound in various localities. 
The epiphytic species are for the most part found within the tropics, and 
their distribution has already been briefly outlined. As regards habitat, 
they occur under almost as varied conditions as flowering plants generally, 
with this exception, that none are truly aquatic, though many grow in bogs 
and swamps, and that very few indeed are true parasites. 
A considerable number of species are very handsome, for which reason 
they are very largely cultivated as decorative plants, and these occur in a 
wild state under very varied conditions. Many others, though less’ showy, 
are still well represented in gardens, and the recently issued Hand-list of the 
Kew collection includes about 1800 species. Most of the generally 
cultivated species are grown without much difficulty under the approved 
methods of culture, and a few are grown successfully for almost indefinite 
periods. But many others gradually deteriorate, and the stock has to be 
renewed periodically from new importations, while others never seem to 
establish themselves, but flower freely from imported plants, and then soon 
_dwindle away. These are called intractable subjects, and bring me to the 
special point of my lecture. oe 
It must be obvious to everyone that these intractable subjects succeed 
perfectly well in a state of nature, otherwise they would some become 
extinct, and the reason of their being intractable at home is that they are 
not properly treated—the conditions under which they grow naturally are 
not imitated sufficiently under our systems of artificial culture. There is 
something wanting, and the question is what that something is, and how it 
may be supplied. Now it should be obvious to everyone that a knowledge 
