198 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
late, and the award is sometimes considered a rather dubious one. The 
Gardeners’ Chronicle (p. 614) remarks :—‘‘ When a plant comes before the 
Orchid or the Floral Committee, the object is not to illustrate its 
botanical history, but to ascertain whether, in the judgment of that 
Committee, the particular plant is, or is not, worthy of commendation 
for cultural or decorative purposes. If it is not, it may still get a 
Botanical Certificate! a distiction which the Committee is not competent 
to give, because unable for the most part to assign a reason for the award, 
A Botanical Certificate should take precedence of all, but in practice it 
is the least regarded.” I had hardly looked on the question in this light 
before. Fancy Sir Trevor Lawrence’s charming little Saccolabium 
miniatum receiving a Botanical Certificate to mark the Committee's 
opinion that it is not worthy of commendation for cultural or decorative 
purposes! My own impression is that these certificates are intended asa 
sort of consolation prize, to indicate that the particular plant exhibited is 
very pretty or possesses some very interesting feature, but is hardly worthy 
of general culture for decorative purposes. Such plants are often called 
“Botanical Orchids,” and the term is pretty well understood. 
I also read the article on “ Supposed Hybrid Orchids, by Major- 
General Berkeley, at page 167, and the editorial note thereon, with 
interest, for 1 have never been able to understand why some of out 
compilers take such delight in raking up every worthless record, Bs 
after they have become exploded fallacies, and incorporating them wi 
well ascertained facts, as if of equal value. Several such compilations 
would have been vastly improved by a severe editing before going to : 
printer. As it is errors are copied from work to work with exasperating 
regularity, and like the every-increasing number of “ provisional names, 
are only a nuisance. 
We seem to have had a very bad outbreak of the Cattleya Fly, but I 
hope that the attention it has received will lead to its speedy extermination 
I note that one or two pond peri a similar difficulty to that 
which George the Third is said to have felt about the dumplings—namely; 
to account for how the apples got inside, for they cannot imagine how the 
— S get inside. However, they do get inside somehow, and I think the 
easiest way to prevent that is to kill all the flies directly they come out. 
None of my Correspondents have sent me the essay on the blue «<_ 
so I must conclude that the difficulty of writing an essay on 4 
Cattleya ” which is not blue is a task beyond their powers, as it 1 bas 
mine. 
ARGUS: 
