£6 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
THE EFFECT OF FOG ON ORCHIDS. 
Focs are usually more or less prevalent in low-lying districts during the 
winter months, and in the neighbourhood of London and some of our 
large manufacturing towns these are so heavily charged with smoke and 
deleterious gases as to do great damage to plant life. The present winter 
has been quite exceptional for the amount of fog—at all events in the 
London district—and recalls the disastrous winter of six years ago, when 
so much damage was done to all tender plants. Orchids, as is well known, 
are frequently much injured by the fog demon, but all are not equally 
affected in the same way, and some notes which have been taken on the 
subject will probably prove interesting to readers of the Orchid Review. 
A bad spell of fog was experienced in October, when Cattleya labiata 
and Cypripedium insigne were in bloom, the bad effects of which were 
quickly visible, especially on the flowers, but the buds were also affected, 
and in a short time a brilliant display of bloom was completely destroyed. 
Phalenopsis Esmeralda, too, suffered in both buds and flowers, but the 
flowers only of Vanda Kimballiana and V. coerulea were affected. The 
behaviour of the latter was curious, as the beautiful blue colour quickly 
became white, though the flowers afterwards remained fresh for nearly a 
fortnight. 
The effect of three days of almost continuous yellow fog in December 
was even more disastrous, and the mischief was apparent on the second 
day. Both flowers and buds of Calanthe x Veitchii, Dendrobium 
Phalenopsis and bigibbum, Oncidium pubes and O. Krameri, Cynorchis 
Lowii, Lelia anceps and L. autumnalis, and Gongora tricolor, either. 
shrivelled or turned yellow and dropped off. The following ten kinds were 
badly injured or destroyed in the bud state :—Phalenopsis amabilis, 
Stuartiana and tetraspis, Lycaste Skinneri, Odontoglossum pulchellum, 
Catasetum longifolium, macrocarpum, uncatum, and discolor, and Lelia 
peduncularis. 
Those of which the flowers were chiefly affected include the following :— 
Angraecum  sesquipedale, Sophronitis violacea, Oncidium  crispum, 
Dendrobium Findlayanum and x chrysodiscus, Epidendrum Wallisii and 
ciliare, Masdevallia ignea, triangularis, and melanopus, Brassavola 
grandiflora and cucullata, Trichopilia sanguinolenta, and Cirrhopetalum 
ornatissimum. 
After this catalogue of disasters it will be interesting to note the kinds 
which were not visibly affected by the fog. These included Odontoglossum 
crispum, Rossii, maculatum, and Krameri, Dendrobium bractescens, 
moniliforme, Mooreanum, and x Cassiope, Oncidium pulvinatum and O. 
unguiculatum, Sophronitis grandiflora, Zygopetalum intermedium and X 
