THE ORCHID REVIEW. 229 
them on the stone. . . . For the letter-press Mr. Pantling and myself 
are jointly responsible. . . . The drawings have all been put on the 
stone by natives of Bengal educated at the Government School of Art in 
Calcutta; and the colouring has, under very careful supervision on Mr. 
Pantling’s part, been done by the sons of Nepalese coolies employed on the 
Government Cinchona Plantations — boys who had never, until Mr. 
Pantling took them in hand, been accustomed to use any implement more 
delicate than a hoe. Mr. Pantling’s perseverance and skill in drilling these 
boys into accurate colourists has been a standing marvel to everybody who 
has seen them at work.” 
From an examination of the drawing and colouring of the species with 
which we are familiar in a living state, we can fully endorse these remarks 
about the accuracy of the drawings and analyses. And the fact that all 
were made from living plants, with a very few exceptions where the living 
plants sent in by the collectors from the higher regions had withered prior 
to their arrival at Mr. Pantling’s house, increases our confidence. 
The way in which some of the specimens were collected is interesting. 
It was believed that some novelties might be found ‘‘in the Alpine part of 
the country lying between the valley of the Great Rungeet and the higher 
snows’’ and therefore ‘‘a small party of trained Lepcha collectors was 
sent during the hot and rainy seasons of several successive years. These 
men were provided with a few swift coolies, by whom living plants of every 
species collected were quickly conveyed to Mr. Pantling, who, while the 
plants were still fresh, made drawings of them. As a precaution, the 
collectors were provided with a stock of Formaldehyd, in a weak solution 
of which they were instructed to preserve inflorescences of every species 
collected.”” In this excellent preserving medium the shape of the flowers 
is retained, and for a considerable time the colours also, and it is in the 
exact coloration only of flowers of a few of the Alpine species thus 
preserved that a few departures from accuracy are suggested as possible. 
It may be added that in half the edition of three hundred copies, the 
lithographs are lightly printed, and partly coloured, the rest being darker 
and uncoloured, and that the volume is in four parts which could 
conveniently be bound separately, each having a title page andindex. At 
the lowest estimate it will make two stout volumes. In a few cases two 
species appear on the same plate, and thus the species may be estimated at 
just over 450, which are arranged in g1 genera. The descriptions are 
accompanied with analytical keys, and some modifications are suggested in 
the arrangement into which we need not enter. The work is dedicated to 
Sir Joseph D. -Hooker, ‘‘ as a cordial token of admiration and respect,” and 
we congratulate the authors on the completion of so excellent a 
monograph. 
