274 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [SEPTEMBER, 1913. 
drawings for a quarter of a century. The consternation caused by this 
malicious act still remains fresh in the minds of some of our readers. 
Professor Reichenbach died on May 6th, 1889, and an appreciative 
Obituary notice appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle for May 18th, in which 
the deceased’s long services to Orchidology were alluded to in highly 
appreciative terms. We may repeat the following paragraph as to the man 
and his work :— 
‘‘ Reichenbach was possessed of remarkably distinct individuality, which 
was as remarkable as his curiously crabbed handwriting which few could 
decipher. Short and massive in stature till his recent illness, with a keen 
penetrating glance and an aquiline nose, his features revealed something of 
the impetuous temper of the man, and his occasional biting sarcasm. His 
devotion to Orchids amounted to a consuming passion ; not a scrap, nor a 
note, nor a drawing, however rough, came amiss to him if it related to an 
Orchid. To him meals and clothes were necessary evils, but his herbarium 
was a prime necessity of existence. The amount of his work was 
prodigious. Of its quality the botanists of the future will judge better 
than we. One thing, however, is obvious, and especially to those who 
have had the opportunity of comparing his work with Lindley’s. In 
Lindley’s time Orchids were, it may be said, counted by the score, while 
in our time the estimate has to be made by the hundred if not by the 
thousand. Lindley, with his clear perception, logical mind, and relatively 
small material, was able to trace sharply defined, expressive characters in 
few words, arranged with rare skill. Reichenbach, with a totally different 
frame of mind, was overburdened with the ever-increasing mass of material. 
His descriptions and comparisons were often singularly felicitous, his 
knowledge of detail enormous, but lacking co-ordination and precision. 
He never gave us ina compendious form a complete synopsis of the genera 
and species. It is greatly to be hoped that his immense collections and 
notes will fall into competent hands (at Kew if possible), for collation and 
revision—a task that will, however, require years of concentration, for his 
publications are not only extremely numerous, but scattered through a wide 
range of publications in almost all European languages.” 
A fortnight later the Editor had to announce the following fateful 
extract from the late Professor’s Will, of which he had been favoured with 
a translation :— 
“ My herbarium and my botanical library, my instruments, collection of 
seeds, &c., accrue to the Imperial Hof Museum in Vienna, under the 
condition that the preserved Orchids and drawings of Orchids shall not be 
exhibited before twenty-five years from the date of my death have elapsed. 
Until this time my collection shall be preserved in sealed cases. In the 
event of the Vienna Institute declining to observe these conditions, the 
