36 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
DIES ORCHIDIANZE. 
THE appearance last month of the beautiful group of winter-flowering 
flattering te the latter. It is accurate enough, for I had the good — | 
to see the plant when alive, but there is a want of sharpness about “a } 
of the details, which is sufficiently explained by the fact the se ‘ 
photograph was made from a painting and not from the plant itself. 
is, nevertheless, a valuable record of one of the most striking into 
of recent years. One cannot help wondering how so remarkable a eo 
should have escaped detection before, even in Madagascar, parts of whic | 
have been so well explored during recent years. 
To return, however, to the photographs, and especially to the 
reproduced at page 17, which I note is hardly one-third natural size, a 
yet shows the details better than in many larger ones. It suggests ee 
question whether it is necessary that such large flowers should : 
reproduced full size, as is often done, for when the amount of reduction 1s 
known, or when some well known variety is included in the Siete: me 
can find the natural size if necessary. I was discussing with a friend the 
other day the question of photographs versus drawings, and why so many 
of the latter are so unsatisfactory, and the conclusion we arrived * be 
this :—Many drawings are hurried sketches, with much of the detail : 
out, and what is put in not always where it ought to be—vide my remarks 
on Odontoglossum crispum Prince of Wales at page 227 of the last volume. 
Further than this there is what may be termed the individuality of the 
artist to be taken into consideration, and this counts for something. Not 
long ago a striking hybrid was exhibited at a meeting of the R.H.S., and 
was illustrated in three or four different papers, all from the same flower, . 
though the amount of difference between the figures was striking. It was 
this that led to the discussion, and the opinion we arrived at was much a 
in favour of photography as a means of securing a reliable record. 
of course, excluded, but the other day I | 
rchid collector respecting the re-discovery 
ium which was a desideratum in cultiva- j 
g his way up a river in a boat, and had — 
us natives, none of whom knew the plant- 
The question of colour was, 
dropped across the note of an O 
of a rare and handsome Dendrob 
tion. The collector was makin 
shown a coloured plate to vario 
Having gone as far as was s 
village who, though he recognised 
various plates shown to him, had not a 
afe, the collector found the headman of 4 — 
