236 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
CULTURE OF CYPRIPEDIUM BELLATULUM. 
WiTH reference to the query at page 197, regarding the culture of 
Cypripedium bellatulum and allied species, I may say that my plants are 
successfully grown in sandy clay with lumps of old mortar. The plants 
are very roughly potted, so that the drainage is very rapid. Seedlings 
come up freely in the interstices of the potting material, which is purposely 
left rough for rapid drainage. We grow the plants in the stove, and water 
freely overhead, without any bad results. By roughly potting this class 
of Cypripedium in this way, it is possible to see portions of the root, and so 
note whether healthy root action is going on. If the roots are not growing, 
from any cause, the only way to do it is to turn the plant out, and treat it 
as an imported plant. It is quite possible that lumps of peat and mortar 
would suit equally well used in the above manner, but the less sphagnum 
moss the better. 
E. S. BERKELEY. 
Stoneham Park, 
Southampton. 
Na a a ar A Tg 
NOTICES OF BOOKS, 
Orchidacearum Genera et Species. Exposuit F. Kraenzlin. Vol. I., 
Fasc. 1. Mayer and Miiller, Berlin, 1897. 
The first part of a work bearing the above title has just reached us, and 
contains the following brief introduction :— 
“The following sheets are the 1st part of Vol. I. of ORCHIDACEARUM 
GENERA Er SPECIES exposuit Fr. KRAENZLIN, containing the Cypripediee 
and the Ophrydez. Vol. II. contains the Dendrobiee and the Bolbophyl- 
line, Vol. III. the Monopodials. The distribution of the remaining groupes 
among the Vols. IV. to VI. cannot be fixed with absolute certainty. 
‘The work will be published in parts at the price of 60 Pf. per sheet of 
16 pages for subscribers to the whole work, and at 70 Pf. per sheet for 
subscribers to single volumes. After the completion of each volume its 
price will be raised. Single parts are not sold.” 
A revision of this large and important natural order is certainly much 
wanted, and a work of this kind, if concise and at the same time 
exhaustive, would be invaluable; how far the present attempt is likely to 
fulfil these conditions may be inferred from an examination of the first 
instalment now before us. It consists of 64 pages, and contains 67 species, 
and as the number of species now known is estimated to exceed five 
thousand, exclusive of synonyms, the six volumes should contain at least 
800 pages each. 
