OCTOBER, 19¢7.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 319 
Mr. W. H. Young, who for seventeen years was Orchid grower to the 
late Sir Frederick Wigan, Bart., Clare Lawn, East Sheen, has purchased 
the nursery and seed business carried on at the Mercury Nursery, Romford, 
Essex. We wish Mr. Young every success in his new venture. 
We regret to hear of the death of Mr. Leon Duval, the well-known 
nurseryman of Versailles, near Paris, who was also an enthusiastic 
Orchidist, and the raiser of numerous hybrids. The deceased, who was 
sixty-three years of age, was Vice-president of the Sociétié Nationale 
d’Horticulture de France. His name is commemorated in Lalio-cattleya 
Duvaliana, a very handsome hybrid derived from Lelia purpurata and 
Cattleya Lueddemanniana. 
A very fine plant of Grammatophyllum speciosam which has just 
flowered at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya, Ceylon, is figured in 
a recent issue of the Gardener's Chronicle (1907, ii. pp. 168, 169, fig. 69). 
Although grown there for about forty years it was not until 1898, in conse- 
quence of a change in that treatment, it really began to assert its majestic 
habit. Up to that year it was nursed on an old decaying tree stump under 
the partial shade of surrounding trees. Thence it was removed to a sunny 
position and planted in a mound of turf, decayed manure, charcoal, broken 
bricks, and laterite stones. It soon commenced to grow rapidly, and about 
a year later threw up six flower spikes. It has since flowered more or less 
every alternate year, and in July last was bearing twenty-six magnificent 
inflorescences. From the first appearance of the flower spikes above ground 
to the visible setting of the first fruit is said to occupy about four months, 
and two months more are required to ripen the stout pod-like fruits. The 
minute, brown seeds are produced ih great quantity, but attempts to 
germinate them have not succeeded. 
The three spikes on the Kew plant are now in fine condition, with a 
good many buds at the apex still unexpanded. 
The fine range of plant houses, principally Orchid houses, built for 
Captain Holford by Messrs. Mackenzie and Moncur, are illustrated in a 
recent issue of the Journal of Horticulture (p. 259). The range consists 
Principally of Orchid houses, most of them being constructed of teak wood. 
They are all provided with slate staging in cast iron framework, and on the 
top of this staging sparred teak shelves are set. Each of these shelves is 
supported by cast iron uprights, having a saucer formed at the bottom, 
which is filled with water to prevent insects getting up to the plants. Each 
house is provided with holes under the staging for the inlet of fresh air 
in wintry weather. In some of the houses'extensive water tanks are formea 
