218 THE ORCHID REVIEW. [JULY, £909. 
purpurata, L. tenebrosa, some showy Masdevallias, Vanda ccerulea, 
Coelogyne pandurata, a well-bloomed Anguloa Clowesii, Odontoglossum 
cordatum, Miltonia vexillaria, two distinct forms of Bulbophyllum Lobbii, 
Epidendrums, Leliocattleya Canhamiana with ten flowers, &c. They also 
included some good Orchids in a group of Stove and Greenhouse plants 
not exceeding 350 square feet in extent, these including Odontoglossums, 
Cattleyas, and Leliocattleyas, with fine specimens of the graceful Oncidium 
flexuosum, O. divaricatum, &c. For these two groups the Gold Medal of 
the R.H.S. was given. 
Messrs. ‘Stuart Low & Co., Bush Hill Park, Enfield, staged a 
magnificent group of Orchids, in which the Cattleyas and Odontoglossums 
were very fine, the former including a handsome form of C. Mendelii with 
a purple feather at the apex of the petals, and another with a slate-blue lip, 
and the latter some good O. crispum, O. x Adrianz Low’s var., and some 
good hybrids. A Silver-gilt Flora Medal was awarded. 
Some good Odontoglossums and other Orchids were included in groups 
not exceeding 350 square feet, staged by Mr. Sharp, of Almondbury, 
Huddersfield, and Mr. Vause, of Leamington, to which Silver-gilt Banksian 
Medals were given. 
THE FIRST “MASTERS” LECTURE. 
THE first of the series of lectures arranged to commemorate the name of the 
Jate Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, F.R.S., for many years Editor of the Gardeners’ 
Chronicle, was given by Professor Hugo de Vries at the meeting of the Royal 
Horticultural Society held on June 22nd last, the subject being Masters’ 
Vegetable Teratology. 
The lecturer remarked that the book was toa great extent a narration of 
observed facts, nevertheless there was evidence on most of its pages of the 
philosophical mind possessed by its author.’ The study of abnormalities had 
a strange history. Before the time of Linnzus genera were regarded as the 
units of the natural system, but Linnzeus elevated species to this rank, in the 
belief that species were distinct creatures. But the abnormalities which 
originated in one’s own garden were obviously not distinct creations, 
and were therefore, in the opinion of Linnzus, not worthy of the attention 
of the serious botanist. This ruling out of court of all deviations from the 
normal may have contributed to the persistence of a belief in the 
immutability of species, for with such ideas it was impossible for any 
progress in the study of evolution to be made. 
But if before the general acceptance of a theory of evolution too little 
attention was paid to the study of abnormalities, it might also be urged that 
since a belief in evolution had become general, abnormalities had assumed 
a prominence which was not commensurate with the share which they had 
