48 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
fragrans, in 1792. At t. 152 it appears under the erroneous name of E. 
cochleatum, whence we learn that ‘‘Commodore Gardner, in the year 
1789, presented to the Apothecaries Company some roots of this plant, 
taken up with great care, and which being successfully treated by Mr. 
Fairburn in their garden at Chelsea, one of them threw up a flowering 
stem last February, from which our drawing was made.’ It was culti- 
vated in pots of earth composed of rotten wood and decayed leaves, and 
plunged in a tan bed. The name was afterwards corrected, at plates 543 
and 572 of the work. 
Cypripedium acaule was figured in the same work in 1793 (t- 192), 
having flowered with Messrs. Grimwood and Wykes, nurserymen, of 
Kensington, when planted in pots of loam and bog-earth or leaves, and 
plunged in a north border. C.-album was also given at t. 216 of the 
same volume. 
Cymbidium pendulum was figured at t. 387, in 1797, under the name 
of Epidendrum aloides. Curtis remarks that ‘“‘a few years since my friend 
Mr. Vere, of Kensington, received this plant from India, by the kindness 
of his neighbour, J. Devaynes, Esq. Placed in a pot of earth, and 
plunged in the tan-pit of the stove, it grew, increased, and now flourishes, 
but has not blown. With Messrs. Grimwood and Wykes, nurserymen, 
Kensington, the plant has flowered this summer; instead of plunging it 
in the tan, they set it on the flue of the stove, and to the variation in 
its treatment its flowering is perhaps to be attributed.’’ 
In 1799 Epidendrum ciliare was also figured (t. 463), with the following 
note :—‘‘ The rare and singular species here represented, a native of the 
West Indies, flowered with Mr. Whitley, nurseryman, Old Brompton, in 
February, 1799, and at irregular periods before that time. He informs us 
that it is not constant as to the time of its blooming, and that though the 
plant flowers with him it never assumes a fine healthy green appearance: 
He propagates it by dividing its limbs or branches, which often put forth 
small roots. The plant grows in a pot, in a mixture of loam and peat or 
bog-earth, and is kept constantly plunged in the tan-pit of the stove.” 
The foregoing details—and we have gone into them pretty fully—show 
that Orchid culture at the close of the eighteenth century was only in its 
infancy. Excluding the hardy kinds, which scarcely come within the limits 
of our subject, we note that the countries from which Orchids came were 
the West Indies, China, and the Cape of Good Hope. The plants were 
chiefly brought home by travellers, and by naval and military officers, in 
slow sailing vessels, in too many cases to be killed soon after their arrival 
by improper treatment. Orchid culture as we know it was non-existent. A 
great development took place during. the next quarter of a century. 
(7 > he continued.) - 
