THE ORCHID REVIEW. 69 
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. 
(Continued from page 55.) 
THE great diversity of habit seen among Orchids arises from adaptations to 
climatic peculiarities, locality, habitat, and the nature of the substratum on 
which they grow, or to the environment generally, but most of these vegeta- 
tive characters are reducible to a few well-marked types, which we may now 
consider, as they are of great importance to the cultivator. 
What may be considered as the most elementary type, as to it belongs 
the most ancestral of existing Orchids—the Apostasiese,—comprises such 
plants as Sobralia, Calanthe, Phaius, the foliose Cypripediums, and various 
others not so well known in caltivation. They are terrestrial plants, usually 
with short creeping rhizomes and fibrous roots, and erect secondary stems 
or branches, with plicate more or less membranaceous leaves. Most of them 
succeed if potted as an ordinary soft-wooded plant, if only the proper treat- 
“ment with regard to heat, moisture, shade, and rest is given—and in this 
respect they are very various in their requirements—but treating them 
as epiphytes would be not only unnatural, but would in many cases be only 
courting failure. And just to illustrate a point previously mentioned I may 
point out that Phaius tuberculosus has so far departed from the normal 
character of the genus as to have become epiphytic, while Calanthe vestita 
has developed large pseudobulbs and has become deciduous, which 
peculiarities necessitate a quite different method of treatment. 
A little higher in the series may be placed such members of the Neottiez 
as Goodyera and the Ancectochilus group, which retain much of the general 
character of the preceding, but in many cases have developed broader leaves 
arranged in a tuft at thé base. Many of these plants grow in shady woods, 
upon humus, and these peculiarities have to be borne in mind in cultivating 
them. 
The genus Vanilla is another curious modification, having developed a 
climbing habit, with zrial roots, and succulent stems and leaves, peculiarities 
____-eennectéd with their forest habitat, and the necessity of getting up into the 
light and air while still remaining terrestrial. 
A succeeding phase of development to that of Neottiez is seen in the 
Ophrydez, which in many cases have developed underground tubers and a 
deciduous habit. Such plants require a distinct period of rest, and frequently 
give the cultivator a good deal of trouble. 
Returning to the group first mentioned we find a modification in another 
direction, where the plicate membranaceous leaves have become conduplicate 
and coriaceous, as in the tropical Cypripediums, and the higher ones 
