THE ORGHID REVIEW. 
— ~ a 
VoL. IX.] MAY, Igol. [No. 101. 
DIES ORCHIDIANI. 
“Dear ARGUS, you have sometimes given us a little Latin dissertation 
among your instructive and entertaining notes, and I have sometimes won- 
dered if you are aware that the title under which these notes appear is 
grammatically incorrect. Latin Grammars and Dictionaries agree that 
dies, though sometimes feminine in the singular, is always masculine in the 
plural, which would make the correct title Dies Orchidiant.” 
Just bok and I may remark that I have long known of the fact. pointed 
out, but it so happens that I am not the inventor of the title. Whether it 
had appeared anywhere before it was used by the late Mr. James Bateman, 
M.A., F.R.S., I cannot say, but in any case “‘ Dies Orchidiane ” was the title 
of a series of twelve interesting papers, by ‘‘ Serapias,”’ which appeared in 
the Gardeners’ Chronicle between 1862 and 1864, and their authorship has 
long been known. — In- adopting that title I overlooked the grammatical 
question involved, and now that attention has been galled to the matter 
_ it may be as well to amend ate in earet of ara aa 
I read Mr. ee article o1 on ‘ Raising ibe Orchids from Seed, ” at page I10, 
with great interest, and hope it will stimulate others to give their experi- 
ence in this ‘‘ fascinating work,” as it is very well. termed. One derivés a 
great deal of help from notes of this kind, in which the different experi- 
ments made are described so lucidly.. If Mr. Orpet did not keep a record 
of ‘his failures, he at_ all events gives us some useful hints as to what to avoid. 
His practice of sowing the seeds on the pots in which’ young seedlings are 
growing, ‘rather than on the old parent plants, seems somewhat novel, and 
I,think it an excellent idea, for it is easy ‘to see that the conditions in the 
seedling house are specially favourable. This, of course, pre-supposes that 
some progress has already been made, for one must have young seedlings, if 
