306 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
BOTANICAL ORCHIDS AT KEW. 
WE must not omit our monthly notes on Botanical Orchids at Kew; for 
some of these little beauties, which are so interesting and which are, 
unfortunately, so seldom seen in cultivation, are always to be found there. 
The Cool house, especially, always contains a selection of these gems, 
several of which must be mentioned this month. The very curious Disa 
polygonoides is very well grown, a good clump bearing about ten spikes, 
covered with numerous small flowers of a reddish-orange colour. Another 
certainly striking plant is Houlletia Brocklehurstiana, bearing a fine spike 
with nine or ten beautiful flowers, of a brownish colour, and daintily 
marked with black spots, the lip being very pretty in shape and darker 
in colour. This plant seems to succeed splendidly, grown in baskets in 
the Cattleya house, but requires a very good rest. 
Platylepis glandulosa is a curious South African species now in bloom. 
Scaphosepalum ochthodes is a free flowering species formerly referred to 
Masdevallia. Epidendrum bracteatum is an interesting Brazilian plant, 
which lasts for a couple of months in perfection, as also does Satyrium 
carneum when kept dry. The small Trichopilia hymenantha and 
Zygopetalum stapelioides are both worth growing. 
Only a few species amongst the warm kinds are to be seen, namely, 
Dendrobium Johannis, an Australian species bearing a spike of small, 
brown flowers, the sepals and_ petals being more twisted than usual. 
Catasetum Hookeri is a very distinct species with nearly globose green 
flowers. Polystachya laxiflora is still in flower, and has been so for no 
less than ten weeks. This West African species deserves more general 
cultivation. Listrostachys subulata and Mystacidium distichum are two 
curious little species of the Angraecum group, but, unfortunately, their 
small white flowers do not last long. 
In conclusion we ought to mention that the handsome Coryanthes 
maculata, which flowered previously, and which was reported in the 
REVIEW last month (page 260), is now showing another spike with four 
buds, which are nearly open: at the moment of writing. This plant has 
furnished no less than six spikes, and seems to do extremely well in the 
new Nephenthes house, where the splendid Eulophiella Elisabethe, 
Grammatophyllum Rumphianum, and Grammangis Ellisii have flowered. 
The new Orchid houses are rapidly approaching completion, and it will 
be interesting to see how far the alterations made prove beneficial to the 
plants, 
ODOoNTO, 
