230 THE ORCHID REVIEW. 
DIES ORCHIDIAN#. 
ORGS books seem to be just now in-the ascendant. No sooner have 
Messrs. James Veitch and Sons completed their standard Manual of Orchida- 
ceous Plants than we have to- welcome the .seventh edition of Mr. B. S. 
Williams’s Orchid Grower’s Manual in a new and greatly improved dress. 
M. L. Linden has also just issued his Orchidées Exotiques et leur Culture en 
Europe, while the Livre des Orchidées of M. le Compte de Kerchove is 
announced to be ready on August 1st. Besides these we have the less pre- 
tentious little Amateur Orchid Cultivator’s Guide Book of Mr. H. A. Bur- 
berry, which will prove so useful to beginners. All this testifies to the 
_ growing popularity of these beautiful plants, and I fancy the day is far 
distant when they will go out of fashion. Cultivators of Orchids have 
certainly no reason to ue of a lack of literature relating to their 
favourite group. 
Cypripedium Charlesworthii is now beginning to flower, and I have seen 
five expanded blooms, with plenty of buds to follow. Although too soon to 
judge of its real merits, its distinctness and beauty are evident enough 
already, and a certain amount of variation may be anticipated. Already I 
hear a white variety spoken of, as if it. were something desirable, which 
surely illustrates the perversity of human nature. The species was specially 
welcomed because it introduced a new colour in the genus, and now a 
variety is anticipated in which that colour shall be absent. At all events 
it is likely to be rare, and that is something in its favour. The species 
would appear to be a summer bloomer, after all. But of this and other 
points we shall be better able to judge in the future. 
Are we going in for a race of greenhouse Orchids? It seems to me that 
the hybrid Disas, of which we have heard and seen so much lately, may be 
thus described. They seem to require little in the way of heat, if only frost 
is kept away. They grow like weeds, only requiring suitable compost, 
plenty of water, and a little shade. And their beauty is undeniable. Their 
vigorous constitution is no doubt largely derived from D. tripetaloides and 
D, racemosa, which are very free growers, quite unlike D. grandiflora in 
this respect. More variety will probably be introduced by re-crossing and 
selection, now that the work has been taken in hand, and I think that the 
pollen of some other species might be tried—notably of the blue Disas—as 
in this way more variety might be introduced. Judging by recent events 
they seem to be particularly promising subjects for the hybridist, and 
Pee Segoe tabard val be sibepete tees 
